Green Thomas Hill

Green, Thomas Hill (1836-82), philosopher, was born at the rectoiy of Birkin in Yorkshire, and educated at Rugby and Balliol College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow in 1860. In 1877 he was appointed Whyte's Professor of Moral Philosophy.

Green's influence at Oxford was due as much to his personal character as his philosophic teaching. The latter was based on the philosophy of Hegel, which was moulded by Green into a new and more practical form. He taught that all men should work together in the unity of the Divine Spirit, which realises itself in human action only in so far as each individual feels that his spiritual life is bound up with that of his fellows. Hence Green took a keen interest in popular education and other social questions. He was a prominent member of the Schools Inquiry Commission (1864-66), and bequeathed large sums for university education and higher education in large towns. His works include an introduction to Hume's Treatise on Human Nature (1874), two Lay Sermons (1878), and the posthumously published Prolegomena to Ethics (1883), and his collected essays, published with a memoir, as the Works of T. H. Green (1885-88).