G. E. Moore's Ethical Theory Resistance and Reconciliation [Paperback]

A comprehensive 2001 study of the ethics of G. E. Moore, the most important English-speaking ethicist of the twentieth century.This is the first comprehensive study of the ethics of G. E. Moore, the most important English-speaking ethicist of the 20th century. Moore's ethical project, set out in his seminal text the Principia Ethica is to preserve common moral insight from skepticism and, in effect, persuade his readers to accept the objective character of goodness.Brian Hutchinson explores Moore's arguments in detail, showing Moore's ethical work to be much richer and more sophisticated than his critics have acknowledged.This is the first comprehensive study of the ethics of G. E. Moore, the most important English-speaking ethicist of the 20th century. Moore's ethical project, set out in his seminal text the Principia Ethica is to preserve common moral insight from skepticism and, in effect, persuade his readers to accept the objective character of goodness.Brian Hutchinson explores Moore's arguments in detail, showing Moore's ethical work to be much richer and more sophisticated than his critics have acknowledged.This is the first comprehensive study of the ethics of G. E. Moore, the most important English-speaking ethicist of the 20th century. Moore's ethical project, set out in his seminal text the Principia Ethica is to preserve common moral insight from skepticism and, in effect, persuade his readers to accept the objective character of goodness. Brian Hutchinson explores Moore's arguments in detail, showing Moore's ethical work to be much richer and more sophisticated than his critics have acknowledged.Introduction: irony, na?vet? and Moore; 1. Simplicity, indefinability, non-naturalness; 2. Good's non-naturalness; 3. The paradox of ethics and its resolution; 4. The status of ethics: dimming the future and brightening the past; 5. The origin of the awareness of good and the theory of common sense; 6. Moore's argument against egoism; 7. The diagnosis of egoismlc*