GREEN, THOMAS HILL. - English philosopher, b. at Birkin (Yorkshire) on 7 Apr. 1836, d. at Oxford on 26 Mar. 1882. From 1878 until his death he held the White chair of moral philosophy at Balliol College.
**GREEK ART – The Trinity with the Dead Christ – Madrid, Prado Gallery.**
He may be regarded as the founder of English idealism inspired by Kant and Hegel (McTaggart and Bradley), rethought through the medium of Berkeley and influenced by Hume’s phenomenalism. In fact, according to G., what is called “real” is nothing but the aggregate of perceptions having constant connection (which, however, is only of a spiritual and cognitive nature), whose foundation is a Universal Consciousness. The shared activity of individual and finite consciousnesses is an effort to conform to the one Universal Consciousness, just as moral activity is the effort by which subjects seek to attain the supreme end. Action is ethical when man perfectly realizes the determined end and, at the same time, feels its inadequacy with respect to the unattainable ultimate end. The Universal Consciousness spoken of by G. is not a personal God, but an impersonal First and Absolute Cause.