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Single Idea 23043
[filed under theme 24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 6. Liberalism / e. Liberal community
]
Full Idea
Our ultimate standard of worth is an ideal of personal worth. All other values are relative to personal values. To speak of any progress of a nation or society or mankind except as relative to some greater worth of persons is to use words without meaning.
Gist of Idea
All talk of the progress of a nation must reduce to the progress of its individual members
Source
T.H. Green (Prolegomena to Ethics [1882], p.193), quoted by John H. Muirhead - The Service of the State II
Book Ref
Muirhead,John H.: 'The Service of the State: T.H. Green' [John Murray 2021], p.44
A Reaction
Note that, pre-verificationism, a Victorian talks of plausible words actually being meaningless. This is a good statement of the core doctrine of liberalism.
The
27 ideas
from T.H. Green
23029
|
Knowledge is secured by the relations between its parts, through differences and identities
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23051
|
Equality also implies liberty, because equality must be of opportunity as well as possessions
[Green,TH]
|
23042
|
National spirit only exists in the individuals who embody it
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23048
|
The ground of property ownership is not force but the power to use it for social ends
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23028
|
The highest political efforts express our deeper social spirit
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23054
|
Communism is wrong because it restricts the freedom of individuals to contribute to the community
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23046
|
States only have full authority if they heed the claims of human fellowship
[Green,TH]
|
23047
|
Original common ownership is securing private property, not denying it
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23049
|
Property is needed by all citizens, to empower them to achieve social goods
[Green,TH]
|
23035
|
The good life aims at perfections, or absolute laws, or what is absolutely desirable
[Green,TH]
|
23037
|
People are improved by egalitarian institutions and habits
[Green,TH]
|
23043
|
All talk of the progress of a nation must reduce to the progress of its individual members
[Green,TH]
|
23038
|
People only develop their personality through co-operation with the social whole
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23036
|
The good is identified by the capacities of its participants
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23039
|
A true state is only unified and stabilised by acknowledging individuality
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23045
|
Politics is compromises, which seem supported by a social contract, but express the will of no one
[Green,TH]
|
23050
|
The ideal is a society in which all citizens are ladies and gentlemen
[Green,TH]
|
23032
|
What is distinctive of human life is the desire for self-improvement
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23033
|
Hedonism offers no satisfaction, because what we desire is self-betterment
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23027
|
Ideals and metaphysics are practical, not imaginative or speculative
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23030
|
Truth is a relation to a whole of organised knowledge in the collection of rational minds
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23044
|
All knowledge rests on a fundamental unity between the knower and what is known
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23034
|
The ultimate test for truth is the systematic interdependence in nature
[Green,TH, by Muirhead]
|
23031
|
God is the ideal end of the mature mind's final development
[Green,TH]
|
23040
|
If something develops, its true nature is embodied in its end
[Green,TH]
|
23041
|
God is the realisation of the possibilities of each man's self
[Green,TH]
|
23052
|
Enfranchisement is an end in itself; it makes a person moral, and gives a basis for respect
[Green,TH]
|