T.H.Green and the Development of Ethical Socialism (British Idealist Studies, Series 3: Green) - Hardcover

Carter, Matt

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0907845320 ISBN 13: 9780907845324

Publisher: Imprint Academic, 2003

Synopsis

This book uncovers the philosophical foundations of a tradition of ethical socialism best represented in the work of R.H. Tawney, tracing its roots back to the work of T.H. Green. Green and his colleagues developed a philosophy that rejected the atomistic individualism and empiricist assumptions that underpinned classical liberalism and helped to found a new political ideology based around four notions: the common good; a positive view of freedom; equality of opportunity; and an expanded role for the state. The book shows how Tawney adopted the key features of the idealists' philosophical settlement and used them to help shape his own notions of true freedom and equality, thereby establishing a tradition of thought which remains relevant in British politics today.

About this title

About the Author:

Matt Carter is a Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at Melbourne University. This is his first book.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Introduction

The former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and socialist writer, Roy Hattersley, has told how he was asked by journalists during the 1987 general election campaign what were the philosophical foundations of his socialism. All he was able to say, he recalled, was ‘T.H. Green’. This book is an attempt to offer some explanation for how an explicitly Liberal thinker like Green could have influenced ethical socialists in the Labour Party such as Hattersley.

The idea that there is some connection between the British idealists and the doctrine of English socialism is not new to academic circles. There has been much discussion over many years about the true influence of Thomas Hill Green and his followers and the debate in the literature appears to have divided into two distinct camps.

What I will term the traditional view has maintained that Green’s influence on the development of socialism was indeed significant. Adam Ulam perhaps offered the most substance to support his analysis of philosophical idealism and English socialism, but many of his contemporaries, from political philosophers like Sabine to practising socialists such as Sidney Webb, also identified a clear connection between T.H. Green and socialist thought. Bowle summed up the thoughts of many when he argued: ‘[t]he first foundations of the Socialist State were laid by Liberal humanists and its legislation enacted by statesmen trained, as was Asquith, in this Oxford way of thought’. Indeed this argument was so persuasive as to lead commentators to see Green’s influence in a wide variety of realms, from the creation of the welfare state to the establishment of a Labour Party. Randall puts it at its strongest, when he argues: ‘It is hardly too much to say that [Green’s] social thought dominated the British Labour Party, in its non-Marxian divisions, down through G.D.H. Cole and Harold J. Laski’. It must be said, however, that despite a wealth of different assessments of the idealists’ influence, there was little provision of academic argument to support these claims.

Perhaps because of this latter point, the general presumption of a causal relationship between idealism and socialism has come under serious attack over the last thirty years or so. Melvin Richter’s detailed textual and historical study of Green’s thought acted as a catalyst for a general reassessment of the idealists’ influence and specifically their impact on socialism. This has been complemented by many contemporary studies into their political thought, spearheaded by Michael Freeden. Freeden is critical of the notion that Green had an influence on socialism, claiming that his ideas reflected rather than directed changes in political thought during the period. Indeed there is now a growing body of literature that challenges the idea that Green and his colleagues contributed anything radical to the debate about the ‘social question’ whatsoever.

The pendulum of academic opinion about the role of idealism in the formation of socialism has swung back considerably. It is the purpose of this work to discover where the true balance lies. I show that, while some of the more exaggerated claims about Green’s influence are without foundation, the effect of the idealists’ work on the development of socialism has been dismissed too swiftly. I do this, not by adopting any of the potential fallacies of ideological research which Freeden rightly identifies, but through a detailed analysis of the idealists’ philosophy and ideology and its connections with socialism.

The central claim of this book is that Green and his followers have played a significant role in the creation of a type of ethical socialism that has been adopted by figures such as R.H. Tawney. The role of the idealists was to establish a new philosophical settlement centred around an epistemological understanding of the world which emphasised its inter-relation, a moral and spiritual personality which acted as a counterbalance against materialistic assumptions and the rise of science, and an intertwined and organically related society, with individuals only able to achieve their potential with the assistance of their community. I claim that, just as empiricist philosophical assumptions could be said to have underpinned Classical Liberalism, idealism helped to shape the development of a new and different political tradition.

The essential features of this new idealist-inspired ideology were: a belief in a common good, which could unite the interests of different individuals; the support for equality of opportunity, to help create a less class-ridden society; a positive view of liberty, meaning more than simply freedom from interference; and the belief in the role of the state as more than a ‘policeman’, but as the representative of the whole community and able to help shape social conditions for the better. It is these features which distinguished the idealists’ work from traditional liberalism, and these elements which they turned into a justification for socialism.

Before I enter into the detail of the work, I think there are two initial challenges which need to be disposed of. The first is a methodological point about the definition of ideologies. The second is an historical claim about the influence of the idealists.

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About this edition

• Publisher: Imprint Academic
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0907845320
• ISBN 13: 9780907845324
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 300