ABSTRACT
T. H. Green's lectures on the Principles of Political Obligation are in the main an attempt to answer two related questions. The statement makes use of a phraseology frequently to be found in Green, viz. that in which he speaks of law, i.e. really the government, as maintaining and again as enforcing rights and obligations. Green's correction of the Social Contract theorists seems to consist in substituting for their 'men in a state of nature' 'men in a society'. The theory is, of course, a general theory of Moral Obligation which takes the form of a political theory in the case of members of a State. Both Green's alternatives are to be found in actual political controversy. Underlying the lectures is a peculiar theory of Moral Obligation which is totally inconsistent with the ordinary moral ideas and therefore with ordinary language, which is after all only the expression of the ordinary ideas.
