Property and personal development: An interpretation of T.H. Green's political philosophy

This paper considers T.H. Green's theory of property in relation to recent studies of late nineteenth and early twentieth century liberal democratic thought. It is argued that neither the ‘Marxist’ spectacles worn by C.B. Macpherson nor the ‘Whiggish’ ones of Melvin Richter, Peter Clarke and Stefan Collini produce very clear or accurate images of Green's political philosophy. Macpherson's Green appears on close examination as yet another possessive individualist, while the ‘Whigs’ take a turn of the century standpoint and describe Green as holding positions that are ambivalent and fit awkwardly into the categories of individualism/ collectivism. In the remainder of the paper it is argued Green's property theory is best understood by focussing on his interest in the relationship between social life and personal development. By drawing on Green's published and unpublished writings it can be shown that Green's idea of personal development could be expressed in other language than that of economic individualism and that it cut across the individualist/collectivist categories in terms of which it is often discussed.