G.E. Moore, more than either Bertrand Russell or Ludwig Wittgenstein, was chiefly responsible for the rise of the analytic method in twentieth-century philosophy. This selection of his writings shows Moore at his very best. The classic essays are crucial to major philosophical debates that still resonate today. Amongst those included are: * A Defense of Common Sense * Certainty * Sense-Data * External and Internal Relations * Hume's Theory Explained * Is Existence a Predicate? * Proof of an External World In addition, this collection also contains the key early papers in which Moore signals his break with idealism, and three important previously unpublished papers from his later work which illustrate his relationship with Wittgenstein.

G. E. Moore's fame as a philosopher rests on his ethics of love and beauty, which inspired Bloomsbury, and on his 'common sense' certainties which challenge abstract philosophical theory. Behind this lies his critical engagement with Kant's idealist philosophy, which is published here for the first time. These early writings, Moore's fellowship dissertations of 1897 and 1898, show how he initiated his influential break with idealism. In 1897 his main target was Kant's ethics, but by 1898 it was the whole Kantian project of transcendental philosophy that he rejected, and the theory which he developed to replace it gave rise to the new project of philosophy as logical analysis. This edition includes comments by Moore's examiners Henry Sidgwick, Edward Caird and Bernard Bosanquet, and in a substantial introduction the editors explore the crucial importance of the dissertations to the history of twentieth-century philosophical thought.

These sixteen original essays, whose authors include some of the world's leading philosophers, examine themes from the work of the Cambridge philosopher G. E. Moore (1873-1958), and demonstrate his considerable continuing influence on philosophical debate. Part I bears on epistemological topics, such as scepticism about the external world, the significance of common sense, and theories of perception. Part II is devoted to themes in ethics, such as Moore's open question argument, his non-naturalism, utilitarianism, and his notion of organic unities.

This is Volume XV in a collection of twenty-two on 20th Century Philosophy. First published in 1966, as a part of the Muirhead library of Philosophy this work consists of selections from three courses of lectures. The first course was given in the academic year 1925-26, the second in 1928-29, and the third in 1933-34. The first two (entitled “ Metaphysics” ) were intended primarily for Part II of the Moral Sciences Tripos; the last (entitled “ Elements of Philosophy” ) for Part I. (The selections from the second course, which are the most extensive, are printed first.)

Does scepticism threaten our common sense picture of the world? Does it really undermine our deep-rooted certainties? Answers to these questions are offered through a comparative study of the epistemological work of two key figures in the history of analytic philosophy, G. E. Moore and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Canonized as the "plain man's philosopher" and the "defender of common sense," G. E. Moore is one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. But Moore's role as Bloombury's prophet has remained a mystery. How could the "plain man's philosopher" influence those legendary members of the Bloomsbury group--Lytton Strachey and John Maynard Keynes, for example--who could never be characterized as plain men? With this book, well-known contemporary philosopher Tom Regan solves the mystery. Relying on Moore's published and unpublished work, Regan traces the development of Moore's moral philsophy up to and through his seminal work, Principa Ethica (1903). Regan offers a radical reinterpretation of Principa. Contrary to the standard interpretation, that work's central theme is the liberation of the individual, not dreary conformity to the rules of conventional morality. The Bloomsberries lived Moore's philosophy--the same philosophy subsequent generations have misunderstood. At once literary and scholarly, Bloomsbury's Prophet challenges received opinions not only about Principa and Moore but about Bloomsbury itself.

This is the first comprehensive study of the ethics of G. E. Moore, the most important English-speaking ethicist of the 20th century. Moore's ethical project, set out in his seminal text the Principia Ethica is to preserve common moral insight from skepticism and, in effect, persuade his readers to accept the objective character of goodness. Brian Hutchinson explores Moore's arguments in detail, showing Moore's ethical work to be much richer and more sophisticated than his critics have acknowledged.

I. THE REFUTATION OF IDEALISM 3. II. THE NATURE AND REALITY OF OBJECTS OF PERCEPTION 17. III. WILLIAM JAMES' "PRAGMATISM" 49. IV. HUME'S PHILOSOPHY 72. V. THE STATUS OF SENSE-DATA 82. VI. THE CONCEPTION OF REALITY 96. VII. SOME JUDGMENTS OF PERCEPTION 107 VIII. THE CONCEPTION OF INTRINSIC VALUE 122. IX. EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL RELATIONS 133. X. THE NATURE OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY 149.

First published in 2002. This title collates a number of the late G. E. Moore's lectures on philosophy with the inclusion of his audience's questions and his answers that would bookend each session. Moore manages to present central, limiting, typical problems discussed in the study of philosophy in such a way that the reader begins to feel them despite themselves. Moore's introduction to philosophical difficulties can help students and scholars alike to judge and understand the most modern attempts to resolve these problems.