Exam 2
Criticisms of Moore's Ethics:
* Is goodness really a self-evident, unanalyzable concept? * to say that we "intuit" goodness with some sort of sixth sense seems far-fetched
Known as ethical "intuitionists":
* Moore, Prichard, Ross, and Ewing
G. E. Moore: Basics
* Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge University * One of the most influencial philosophers of the 20th century * Argues that goodness is simple and indefinable, not to be identified with any natural property
Intuitionists held the position that:
* good and bad are matters of fact, entirely dependent of what we think or feel. * they were English gentlmen that could not see it otherwise.
According to Moore: "Good" is the name of a
* simple, unanalyzable property like, "yellow". We can perceive its presence in things, but we cannot define it
Moore--Goodness of ends:
1. "Personal affections and aesthetic enjoyments include all the greatest, and by far the greates goods we can imagine" 2. Example of the greatest good, "to sit in a comfy room with good friends, eating good food, talking about Monet while listening to Mozart!
Moore--Goodness of means:
1. the preservation of civilized society is necessary for the existence of anything intrinsically good. 2. traditional moral rules are necessary and useful for preserving such a society.
Moore claims that there are 2 questions ethics must answer:
1. what kinds of things have intruinsic value? (ends) 2. what are our duties? (means)
Moore: His 2 ethics questions (means/ends) are related how?
People ought to act in ways that bring about as much intrinsic goodness as possible.
Moore: His book?
* "Principia Ethica" * ...previous philosophy was based on a mistake * earlier philosophers went wrong by failing to be clear about the questions they were asking.
Moore: The central question for moral philosophy is...
* "What is goodness?" * he soon concluded that no definition is possible
Critiques of Moore's Ethics provided the starting point of a moral theory for a group of philosophers called:
* "emotivists"