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Single Idea 8033

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / a. Idealistic ethics ]

Full Idea

Moore's account leaves it entirely unexplained and inexplicable why something's being good should ever furnish us with a reason for action.

Gist of Idea

Moore cannot show why something being good gives us a reason for action

Source

comment on G.E. Moore (Principia Ethica [1903]) by Alasdair MacIntyre - A Short History of Ethics Ch.18

Book Ref

MacIntyre,Alasdair: 'A Short History of Ethics' [Routledge 1967], p.252

A Reaction

The same objection can be raised to Plato's Form of the Good, but Plato's answer seems to be that the Good is partly a rational entity, and partly that the Good just has a natural magnetism that makes it quasi-religious.

The 14 ideas from 'Principia Ethica'

22151 The Open Question argument leads to anti-realism and the fact-value distinction [Boulter on Moore,GE]
8033 Moore cannot show why something being good gives us a reason for action [MacIntyre on Moore,GE]
8032 Can learning to recognise a good friend help us to recognise a good watch? [MacIntyre on Moore,GE]
11050 Moore's combination of antinaturalism with strong supervenience on the natural is incoherent [Hanna on Moore,GE]
23726 Despite Moore's caution, non-naturalists incline towards intuitionism [Moore,GE, by Smith,M]
5925 The three main values are good, right and beauty [Moore,GE, by Ross]
8039 Moore tries to show that 'good' is indefinable, but doesn't understand what a definition is [MacIntyre on Moore,GE]
5902 For Moore, 'right' is what produces good [Moore,GE, by Ross]
5907 Relationships imply duties to people, not merely the obligation to benefit them [Ross on Moore,GE]
11057 It is always an open question whether anything that is natural is good [Moore,GE]
11056 The naturalistic fallacy claims that natural qualties can define 'good' [Moore,GE]
5903 'Right' means 'cause of good result' (hence 'useful'), so the end does justify the means [Moore,GE]
18676 We should ask what we would judge to be good if it existed in absolute isolation [Moore,GE]
21233 The beautiful is whatever it is intrinsically good to admire [Moore,GE]