Produced by GDurb
1911
All rights reserved
The present volume consists of the late Professor Green's lectureson the 'Principles of Political Obligation,' together with a chapteron the different senses of the term 'Freedom,' taken from a coursedirectly connected with the former. The work thus re-issued is areprint of pp. 307-553 of Vol. II. of Professor Green's PhilosophicalWorks, with the addition of a brief supplement (p. 248) furnishedby the present writer, consisting of English renderings for somequotations which appear in the text (pp. 49-59).
The reason for this re-issue is as follows. The course of lectures inquestion has long been known to teachers as a most valuable text-bookfor students of political theory. But as a portion of a large andexpensive volume, which is itself part of a set of collected works,it naturally was not accessible to members of popular audiences.In discussing the selection of a text-book for a projected courseof instruction on political theory, to be given in London, it wassuggested that a separate volume, containing the 'Principles ofPolitical Obligation' would be the best conceivable book for thepurpose. No other recent writer, it was felt, has the classicalstrength and sanity of Professor Green, who was never more thoroughand more at home then when dealing with those questions affectingcitizenship in and for which, it may be said, he lived. Many of thetroubles of today reflect the distraction of minds to which a saneand balanced view of society has never been adequately presented;and the importance of the service which might be rendered to generaleducation by the re-issue of these lectures in a convenient formappeared to justify an application to those who had the power ofcarrying out the suggestion which had been made.
The friends of genuine political philosophy will have good cause, itis hoped, to be grateful to Mrs T.H. Green for her cordial assentto the proposed republication, as also to Messrs. Longman for theirpromptitude in agreeing to undertake it. The elaborate table ofcontents, reprinted from the Philosophical Works, was compiled bytheir editor, the late Mr. Lewis Nettleship. It adds very greatly tothe value of the book.
Transcriber's Note: each of Green's footnotes has been placed afterthe paragraph to which it refers, and renumbered accordingly.The footnotes added by R.L. Nettleship are treated the same way,remain in the square brackets with which he distinguished them,and are marked 'RLN'. The transcriber has added a few footnotes,mainly explaining Greek words in the text. These are also in squarebrackets, marked 'Tr'.
1. In one sense (as being search for self-satisfaction) all willis free; in another (as the satisfaction sought is or is not real) itmay or may not be free
2. As applied to the inner life 'freedom' always implies a metaphor.Senses of this metaphor in Plato, the Stoics, St. Paul
3. St. Paul and Kant. It would