Table Of ContentMuirhead Library of Philosophy
PHILOSOPHICAL PAPERS
MUIRHEAD
Muirhead Library of Philosophy
20TH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY
In 22 Volumes
I Contemporary American Philosophy Adams &
(Vol I) Montague
II Contemporary American Philosophy Adams &
(Vol II) Montague
III G E Moore Ambrose &
Lazerowitz
IV Ludwig Wittgenstein Ambrose &
Lazerowitz
V Philosophy in America Black
VI Contemporary Philosophy in Australia Brown & Rollins
VII A History of Philosophy (Vol I) Erdmann
VIII A History of Philosophy (Vol II) Erdmann
IX A History of Philosophy (Vol III) Erdmann
X Ideas Husserl
XI The Development of Bertrand Russell's
Philosophy Jager
XII Contemporary British Philosophy (Vol III) Lewis
XIII Contemporary British Philosophy (Vol IV) Lewis
XIV A Hundred Years of British Philosophy Metz
XV Lectures on Philosophy Moore
XVI Commonplace Book Moore
XVII Philosophical Papers Moore
XVIII Some Main Problems of Philosophy Moore
XIX Bernard Bosanquet and His Friends Muirhead
XX Contemporary British Philosophy (Vol I) Muirhead
XXI Contemporary British Philosophy (Vol II) Muirhead
XXII Bertrand Russell Memorial Volume Roberts
PHILOSOPHICAL PAPERS
GEORGE EDWARD MOORE
Routledge
Taylor & Francisg Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1959 by
George Allen & Unwin Ltd
Published 2013 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,an informa business
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
The publishers have made every effort to contact authors/copyright holders
of the works reprinted in the Muirhead Library of Philosophy. This has not
been possible in every case, however, and we would welcome
correspondence from those individuals/companies we have been unable to
trace.
These reprints are taken from original copies of each book. In many cases
the condition of these originals is not perfect. The publisher has gone to
great lengths to ensure the quality of these reprints, but wishes to point
out that certain characteristics of the original copies will, of necessity, be
apparent in reprints thereof.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Philosophical Papers
ISBN 978-0-415-29551-2
20th Century Philosophy: 22 Volumes
ISBN 0-415-29526-2
Muirhead Library of Philosophy: 95 Volumes
ISBN 0-415-27897-X
MUIRHEAD LIBRARY OF PHILOSOPHY
An admirable statemento f the aims of the Library of Philosophyw as
provided by the first editor, the late ProfessorJ . H. Muirhead, in his
descriptiono f the original programmep rinted in Erdmann'sH istory of
Philosophy under the date 1890. This was slightly modified in subse-
quentv olumest o take the form of the following statement:
'The Muirhead Library of Philosophyw as designeda s a contribution
to the History of Modern Philosophyu ndert he heads:f irst of different
Schools of Thought-Sensationalist,R ealist, Idealist, Intuitivist;
secondlyo f different Subjects-PsychologyE, thics, Aesthetics,P olitical
Philosophy,T heology. While muchh adb eend onei n Englandi n tracing
the courseo f evolution in nature,h istory, economics,m oralsa nd religion,
little had been done in tracing the developmento f thought on these
subjects.Y et "the evolution of opinion is part of the whole evolution".
'By the co-operationo f different writers in carrying out this plan it
was hopedt hat a thoroughnessa nd completenesso f treatment,o therwise
unattainable,m ight be secured.I t was believed also that from writers
mainly British and American fuller considerationo f English Philosophy
than it had hitherto receivedm ight be looked for. In the earlier serieso f
books containing, among others, Bosanquet's History of Aesthetic,
Pfleiderer's Rational Theology since Kant, Albee's History of English
Utilitarianism, Bonar'sP hilosophy and Political Economy,B rett's History
of Psychology, Ritchie's Natural Rights, these objects were to a large
extente ffected.
'In the meantimeo riginal work of a high order was being produced
both in Englanda nd America by suchw riters as Bradley, Stout, Bertrand
Russell, Baldwin, Urban, Montague,a nd others, and a new interest in
foreign works, German, French and Italian, which had either become
classicalo r were attracting public attention, had developed.T he scope
of the Library thus becamee xtendedi nto somethingm ore international,
and it is enteringo n the fifth decadeo f its existencei n the hope that it
may contribute to that mutual understandingb etweenc ountries which
is so pressinga needo f the presentt ime.'
The need which Professor Muirhead stressedi s no less pressing
today, and few will deny that philosophyh as much to do with enabling
us to meet it, although no one, least of all Muirhead himself, would
regard that as the sole, or even the main, object of philosophy. As Pro-
fessor Muirhead continues to lend the distinction of his name to the
Library of Philosophyi t seemedn ot inappropriatet o allow him to recall
us to these aims in his own words. The emphasiso n the history of
thought also seemedt o me very timely; and the number of important
works promised for the Library in the near future augur well for the
continuedf ulfilment, in this and other ways, of the expectationso f the
original editor.
H. D. LEWIS
This page intentionally left blank:
PHILOSOPHICAL
PAPERS
BY
GEORGE EDWARD MOORE
O.M.
LITT.D., HON. LL.D., F.B.A.
EmeritusP rofessoro f Philosophy
and Fellow of Trinity College
in the University of Cambridge
LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1959
SECOND IMPRESSION 1963
This book is copyright under the Berne Con-
vention. Apart from any fair dealing for the
purpose of private study, research, criticism or
review, as permitted under the Copyright Act,
1956, no portion may be reproduced by any
process without written permission. Enquiry
shouldb e made to the publis/le1'.
© George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1959
PRINTED IN GREA1 " BRITAI\';
BY PHOTOLITHO
in II on I2 pt Imprint type
BY UNWIN BROTHERS LIMITED
WOKING AND LONDON
G. E. MOORE
(The following notice is reprinted, with corrections and additions,
from The Manchester Guardian of October 25, 1958, by kind per-
mission of the Editor.)
George Edward Moore was born in London in 1873 and died
at Cambridge on October 24-, 1958. He was the third son of
D. Moore, M.D., and Henrietta Sturge, and was a brother of
SturgeM oore, the poet.
Moore was at school at Dulwich College, and he entered
Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1892. He took a First in Part I
of the Classical Tripos, and then turned to the study of Moral
Science,t o which he devotedt he rest of his life. In 1896 he was
placed in the first class of Part II of the Moral SciencesT ripos,
and in 1898 he was awarded a prize-fellowship at Trinity. His
dissertation dealt with two main topics, viz. the notion of the
'empirical' and the 'noumenal' self in Kant's ethical writings,
and the notions of 'reason' and 'idea', with special referencet o
Bradley's Logic. The substanceo f both parts of the dissertation
was afterwardsp ublishedi n Mind in two articles, entitled 'Free-
dom' and 'The Nature of Judgment'.H is first book, Principia
Ethica, was publishedi n 1903.
He was away from Cambridgeu ntil 1911, holding no teaching
post. In 1911 he returned to take up the office of University
Lecturer in Moral Science. He held this for the next fourteen
years, lecturing on Psychologya nd on Metaphysics.I n 1921 he
becamee ditor of Mind, on the retiremento f G. F. Stout. In 1925
he succeededJ amesW ard as Professoro f Philosophy in Cam-
bridge, and in the samey ear he again becameF ellow of Trinity.
In 1951 he was appointedt o the Order of Merit. Moore married
Miss Dorothy Ely in 1916 and had two sons.
Beside Principia Ethica Moore published three books, Ethics
(1912) in the Home University Series,P hilosophicalS tudies( 1922),
and Some Main Problems of Philosophy (1953). He contributed
many extremely importanTaiticles,i n his earlier years to Mind
and other philosophical periodicals, and later to the Proceedings
and the annualS upplementaryV olumeso f the Aristotelian Society.
Moore's philosophical interests were wholly analytic and
critical. He had not the slightest belief in the possibility of any
system of constructive metaphysics,a nd he was a devastating
critic of the fallacies and confusionsi nherenti n such systems.B y
his own writings, and the influence which he exercisedo n con-
temporariesl ike Bertrand Russell, and (as Keynes has testified)
on a whole series of able men of a younger generation,h e did
