L. T. Hobhouse - The Elements of Social Justice

Routledge Revivals

First published in 1922, this title written by L.T.Hobhouse, British politician and one of the leading theorists of Social Liberalism, is a seminal work concerning the social application of ethical principles for the common good. The object of the book is to show that social and political institutions are not ends in themselves.

Hobhouse argues that the social ideal is to be sought not in the faultless unchanging system of an institutional Utopia, but in the love of a spiritual life with its unfailing system of harmonious growth unconfined.

First published in 1922
by George Allen & Unwin Ltd

This edition first published in 2009 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

1922 L.T.Hobhouse

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.

ISBN 0-203-87129-4 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 13:978-0-415-55277-6 (hbk)
ISBN 13:978-0-203-87129-4 (ebk)

ISBN 10:0-415-55277-X (hbk)
ISBN 10:0-203-87129-4 (ebk)

FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1922

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

SECOND IMPRESSION 1930

THIRD IMPRESSION 1949

FOURTH IMPRESSION 1958

FIFTH IMPRESSION 1965

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act 1956, no portion may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiry should be made to the publishers.

ISBN 0-203-87129-4 Master e-book ISBN

The subject of this book is the social application of the ethical principles explained by the writer in The Rational Good. These principles are summarized in so as to be intelligible without reference to the preceding work, to which the reader is referred for the fuller statement of the arguments on which they are based. The treatment as here developed is therefore in form deductive, but this is not to say that it is an attempt to apply abstract principles without experience. On the contrary, the only valid principles are those that emerge out of our experience, and the function of the highest generalizations is to knit our partial views together in a consistent whole. That our social philosophy must form such a whole and that our social efforts suffer from lack of articulate statement and rational coherence is only too palpable. To promote unity of aim among men of goodwill and lay a basis of co-operation between those attacking different sides of the social problem is a practical problem of the highest importance.

I have to thank Mr. J.A.Hobson for reading the MS., and suggesting many valuable emendations; and Mr. A.W.Perris for performing the same service with the proofs.

L.T.H.

WIMBLEDON,
October 1, 1921.