Excerpt from The Metaphysics of Knowledge: Being an Examination of Some Phases of T. H. Green's Theory of Reality. During the last twenty~five years, no attempt among English speaking people to offer a reasoned and systematic account of the nature of ultimate reality has been productive of more fruitful criticism and suggestion than that of Green. No other single force has been so effective in the exposure of the fundamental inconsistencies and contradic tions of the national empiricism, inherited through a long line of ancestors from Locke and Hume. Whatever may be said of the success or failure of Green's own constructive conception of the Real considered as a system, it may be conceded, without fear, that his polemical work represents the high-water mark of English philosophical criticism. But to those acquainted with his philosophical activity as a whole, it is well known that this criticism moves throughout under the lead of a certain idealistic interpretation of the nature of the Real} His central conception is that the universe is a single activity or energy, of. Which it is the essence to be self-conscious, that is, to be itself and not itself in one. Of this activity every particular existence is a limited manifestation, and among other such existences, those which we call 'ourselves.' In so far as there is a 'we' at all and a world which may be called 'ours,' it is because the self which is the unity of the world is communicated under the particular conditions of our physical organization.. About the Publisher. Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com. This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.