GE Moore Philosophy Research

George Edward Moore(1873-1958)was an important British philosopher who exerted a powerful influence on contemporary philosophy,especially on British and American philosophy.First,he was one of the founders of analytic philosophy,together with Frege,Russell and Wittgenstein.Moore’s philosophy is characterized by linguistic analysis which is very precise and clear.Through his analysis,Moore made semantic and logical clarification on many problems of traditional philosophy and metaphysics,which made these problems either disappeared or could not be pursued anymore,or could only be solved by other ways.This method and style of writing was refreshing then in British philosophy.Moore thus played a very important role in the formation and development of analytical philosophy and was undoubtedly one of the founders of analytical philosophy.Second,thanks to his Principia Ethica(1903),Moore is regraded as the founder of metaethics.In this book,for the first time,Moore mainly approached ethical issues through linguistic analysis.This method has been influencing the study of metaethics for more than a hundred years from then to now.Third,Moore is considered to be one of the UK’s representatives of neorealism which was a philosophical movement in the early 20 th century.Finally,he did more than any other person to undermine the predominant influence of Hegelianism in England.With regard to ontology,Moore had the following remarkable characteristics.First,Moore thought ontology is the most important part of philosophy.Second,throughout his life,Moore always maintained that universals exist and are ultimate things.This is a prominent feature of Moore’s philosophy,and thus makes his philosophy a kind of logical essentialism.Third,Moore emphasized the existence of physical objects which was considered as one of the views of Common Sense.But Moore never defined physical objects with physical or chemical elements.He attributed the property of space to physical objects and considered this property which is a universal as the only positive property of physical objects.Finally,Moore maintained that the object thought of and the act of thought are not identical,and that there always exist some things whatever except ones which absolutely have no being,even at the moment when they are not perceived by any spiritual beings.With regard to epistemology,Moore tried to use the concept ‘sense data’ to bridge the gap between mind and matter,which made his argument inconsistent.The main problem of Moore’s epistemology is how we could know something beyond sense data.He thought the apprehension of propositions is a way to do so.With regard to knowing universals,Moore’s epistemology is a kind of intuitionism.Besides,Moore also discussed some issues on knowledge,certainty,and the reason to reject agnosticism and skepticism.In addition,Moore embraced a correspondence theory of truth.With regard to ethics,Moore thought ‘good’ is a simple notion which exists objectively and cannot be defined and confused with other simple notions.He distinguished three kinds of ethical issues,namely,what is meant by good? what things are good in themselves? and what should we do? He spent much time to refute hedonism and metaphysical ethics and to discuss the things which he considered to be good in themselves.His ethics is obviously a kind of metaethics in some respects,even though he attributed to good and ethical propositions the most extreme objectivity.In philosophical research Moore mainly adopted some methods such as the semantic and logic analysis of language,the paradox of definition,the absolute isolation,and the difficulty of infinite regress,etc.Generally speaking,Moore was undoubtedly a very important philosopher in the history of philosophy.And with regard to some specific achievements,he successfully showed certain apparent absurdity in some philosophical arguments.But needless to say,Moore’s philosophy also has some obvious defects.It never happened to him to ask whether the universals whose existence he never doubted are just people’s way of thinking or analytical tools or even grammar and habits of certain language.While using the new methods,the problems which he determined to solve,however,were quite trite and old and turned out to be nothing but an endless debate in the history of philosophy.His philosophy also lacks the perspective of history,and the logical essentialism which he held is obviously a kind of essentialism intrinsically associated with objectivism and foundationalism.Although his philosophical analysis is clear,he seemed to lack innovation.Besides,the linguistic analysis which he mainly applied in his philosophical research made his thought a bit formalized on some problems.