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G.E. Moore didn't disappear from history. His Ethics (1907) and Principia Ethica (1903) both remain widely cited. His naturalistic fallacy remains a major tour

by dvt 7y ago

G.E. Moore didn't disappear from history. His Ethics (1907) and Principia Ethica (1903) both remain widely cited. His naturalistic fallacy remains a major tour de force in ethics[1], and his moral "super-objectivism" was studied and critiqued throughout the 1900s by every heavy hitter out there: from Geach, to Anscombe, to Foot, to Lawrence. > ... but through the second half of the 20th century interest went into serious decline I wish Monk were more clear here. Basically all of non-natural moral theory (virtue ethics, objectivism, Kantian ethics, divine law in theological circles) went into a nosedive. Seriously, read Ansombe's MMP[2] and you'll see how disillusioned she was with the state of moral philosophy -- which was, at the time, mostly interested in linguistic and logical puzzles: is "good" descriptive, predicative, commendatory, attributive, or what-have-you. [1] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-non-naturalism/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-non-naturalism/ [2] https://www.pitt.edu/~mthompso/readings/mmp.pdf https://www.pitt.edu/~mthompso/readings/mmp.pdf

hilbert42 7y ago
"G.E. Moore didn't disappear from history. His Ethics (1907) and Principia Ethica (1903) both remain widely cited." Correct, G.E. Moore certainly didn't disappear from history. I still have my copy of Principia Ethica that was drummed into me in Phil. classes at university decades ago. I've kept a copy of this and other works such as Plato's Republic along with the works of Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Rousseau and others that are so well know to the cognoscenti that I needn't even name them—both because they are great and important works that have stood the test of time and that I still occasionally refer to them. Given the many difficult moral and ethical dilemmas now facing the world, it seems to me it's more important than ever that we should reacquaint ourselves with Moore's works on ethics. Incidentally, I've just looked up notes on my laptop about a matter wherein I've included a reference from Moore's Principia Ethica, that was on 2019-10-27. QED!

by dvt 7y ago

hilbert42 7y ago

"G.E. Moore didn't disappear from history. His Ethics (1907) and Principia Ethica (1903) both remain widely cited." Correct, G.E. Moore certainly didn't disappear from history. I still have my copy of Principia Ethica that was drummed into me in Phil. classes at university decades ago. I've kept a copy of this and other works such as Plato's Republic along with the works of Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Rousseau and others that are so well know to the cognoscenti that I needn't even name them—both because they are great and important works that have stood the test of time and that I still occasionally refer to them. Given the many difficult moral and ethical dilemmas now facing the world, it seems to me it's more important than ever that we should reacquaint ourselves with Moore's works on ethics. Incidentally, I've just looked up notes on my laptop about a matter wherein I've included a reference from Moore's Principia Ethica, that was on 2019-10-27. QED!