G. E. Moore Quotes
George Edward Moore was a British philosopher and, with Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein, a founding figure of the analytic tradition at Cambridge. In Principia Ethica he argued that good is a simple, indefinable property and exposed what he called the naturalistic fallacy, the attempt to define good in terms of any natural feature. The quotes below are attributed to G. E. Moore, organized by topic.
Browse G. E. Moore by topic
G. E. Moore on Happiness
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Attributed to G. E. Moore:
“By far the most valuable things which we know or can imagine are certain states of consciousness, which may be roughly described as the pleasures of human intercourse and the enjoyment of beautiful objects.”
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“The study of Ethics would, no doubt, be far more simple, and its results far more "systematic," if, for instance, pain were an evil of exactly the same magnitude as pleasure is a good; but we have no reason whatever to assume that the Universe is such that ethical truths must display this kind of symmetry ... .”
Principia Ethica (1903), ch. VI.
G. E. Moore on Knowledge
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Attributed to G. E. Moore:
“A philosophical question, when fully understood, will be found to be already half answered.”
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“Principia Ethica (1903; revised edition, Cambridge University Press, 1993).”
By far the most valuable things, which we know or can imagine, are certain states of consciousness, which may roughly be described as the pleasures of human intercourse and the enjoyment of beautiful objects. No one, probably, who has asked himself the question, has ever doubted that personal affection and the appreciation of what is beautiful in Art or Nature, are good in themselves; nor, if we c -
“Principia Ethica (1903), ch. VI.”
The study of Ethics would, no doubt, be far more simple, and its results far more "systematic," if, for instance, pain were an evil of exactly the same magnitude as pleasure is a good; but we have no reason whatever to assume that the Universe is such that ethical truths must display this kind of symmetry ... . -
“It is raining but I do not believe that it is.”
One of the statements presenting what has become known as " Moore's paradox , from a famous lecture concerning logical inconsistency in 1942, as quoted in Reason in Theory and Practice (1969) by Roy Edgley, p. 71; in which he also stated "It is not raining, but I believe that it is." These sentences are not logically contradictory, and yet it seems that no one could make a true assertion by sincer
G. E. Moore on Mind
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Attributed to G. E. Moore:
“It went out, but I do not believe it went out.”
G. E. Moore on Nature
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“Proof of an External World," Proceedings of the British Academy 25 (1939).”
I can prove now, for instance, that two human hands exist. How? By holding up my two hands, and saying, as I make a certain gesture with the right hand, "Here is one hand," and adding, as I make a certain gesture with the left, "and here is another." And if, by doing this, I have proved ipso facto the existence of external things, you will all see that I can also do it now in numbers of other ways
G. E. Moore on Truth
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“Here is one hand, and here is another.”
Proof of an External World," Proceedings of the British Academy 25 (1939).
G. E. Moore on Virtue
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Attributed to G. E. Moore:
“Good is good, and that is the end of the matter.”
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Attributed to G. E. Moore:
“In ethics the difficulty has been to discover what we mean when we use the word good.”