ABSTRACT
T. H. Green is a leading exponent of British Idealism that makes a new synthesis of the themes introduced by the abovementioned thinkers. On the one hand, Green shows the inadequacy of the conception of the self that underlies the negative view. He puts forward the view that the self is internally complex and socially embedded, in contrast to the view that the self is simple and atomistic. On the other hand, he criticises the view that takes free market society grounded on 'freedom of contract' as the model of a free society. Like other advocates of the positive view, Green takes reason to be the basis of moral agency and freedom. He distinguishes between the possibility and the actuality of freedom. For him, social progress can be measured by the 'historical growth in freedom' which is also in parallel with the moral development of individuals towards self-perfection.
