Principles of Ethics

Author: Moore
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2005-05-01
Features: As I see it, in ethics, as in all philosophical disciplines, the difficulties and controversies throughout its history are primarily due to a very simple reason: attempting to answer a question without first precisely discovering what it is that one hopes to answer. Even if philosophers strive to identify the very question they are exploring before attempting to answer it, I do not know to what extent this error would be eliminated; for the work of analysis and distinction is often extremely difficult: we often fail to make the necessary discovery, despite our genuine efforts. Nevertheless, I tend to believe that decisive attempts are often sufficient to ensure success; therefore, as long as such an attempt is made, many of the striking difficulties and controversies in philosophy would disappear. In any case, it seems that philosophers generally do not make this attempt; and whether due to this neglect or not, they persistently seek to prove that "yes" or "no" can answer all questions. Yet, for such questions, both answers are incorrect, because in fact they are grappling with multiple issues, some of which have "no" as the correct answer, while others have "yes." In this book, I have tried to clearly distinguish the two types of questions that moral philosophers typically claim to address. However, as I have demonstrated, they almost always confuse these two not only with each other but also with other issues. The first type of question can be phrased as: "What things should exist for themselves?" The second type of question can be phrased as: "What actions should we take?" I have tried to demonstrate that when we explore whether a thing should exist for itself, whether it is good in itself, or whether it possesses intrinsic value, we are actually addressing what we are truly discussing about that thing; and when we explore whether we should take a certain action, whether it is a right action or an obligation, we are addressing what we are truly discussing about that action.