The Metaphysics of Self-realisation and Freedom

This first part of Colin Tyler’s new critical assessment of the social and political thought of T.H. Green (1836–1882) explores the grounding that Green gives to liberal socialism. Tyler shows how, for Green, ultimately, personal self-realisation and freedom stem from the innate human drive to construct a bedrock of fundamental values and commitments that can define and give direction to the individual’s most valuable potentials and talents. This book is not only a significant contribution to British idealist scholarship. It highlights also the enduring philosophical and ethical resources of a social democratic tradition that remains one of the world’s most important social and political movements, and not least across Britain, Europe, North America, India and Australia. Dr Colin Tyler is Reader in Politics at the University of Hull and joint convenor of the Centre for British Idealism.

Keywords: TH Green, social philosophy, political philosophy, liberal socialism, liberalism, self realisation, freedom, values, idealism, British idealism, individualism, collectivism, socialism, religion, knowledge, experience, eternal consciousness, will, unconscious, choice, responsibility, agency, determinism, human spirit, personality, utilitarianism, culture, consequentialism