g.e. moore

• Moore criticised naturalism
• Moore maintained that you cannot use non-moral premise to make a moral judgement
• Moore claimed that moral judgements could not be proved empirically, but we recognise good things intuitively

  • we have infallible knowledge of good things e.g. i don't need to observe a murder to know killing someone is wrong - i just know it is
• Moore argued there are simple + complex ideas:

  • complex = 'horse' can be broken down into animal, mammal, etc
  • simple = 'yellow' can't be broken down any further

  he argued the word 'good' is indefinable because it is simple + the concept cannot be broken down further
• Moore argues philosophers who attempt to define goodness commit the naturalist fallacy

  • you cannot move from facts to values
  • moral truths cannot be defined by looking at the natural world
  • e.g. fact = oranges have vitamin c; value = it is good to eat oranges