Green, Thomas Hill

Green, Thomas Hill an English philosopher, was born in 1836. He was educated at Rugby and at Balliol College. In 1859 he took his bachelor's degree; began to study Hegel, and gave a good deal of attention to the Tubingen school, especially Baur. Among the fruits of these studies were two essays on the Development of Dogma. In 1866 he commenced lecturing at Balliol, and in 1878 was elected to the office of Whyte's professor of moral philosophy, and shortly after resigned. his tutorship. He died March 26, 1882. For the North British Review he contributed, in 1866, on the Philosophy of Aristotle, and on Popular Philosophy in its Relation to Life. His main work followed in 1874, as part of a new edition of Hume's works by Green and Grose, in four volumes. The first two volumes, including the Treatise on Human Nature, were prefaced by lengthy introductory dissertations; one dealing with the theoretical philosophy of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume; the other with the ethical views of these writers and their contemporaries. "The former," says a writer in the Academy, "is a probably unequalled piece of minute and at the same time comprehensive criticism of the origins of current English philosophy." In December 1877, professor Green began, in the Contemporary Review, a series of papers on "Mr. Herbert Spencer and Mr. G.H. Lewes: their Application of the Doctrine of Evolution to Thought." Besides, in several short reviews published in the Academy, he has made contributions of permanent value to the literature of philosophical criticism. See Contemporary Review, May 1882. (B.P.)