Submit Response is a weblog by Jack Mottram, a What is Good?
For years, I’ve been paraphrasing a quotation half-remembered from a philosophy lecture:
Essentially, good can be defined as enlightening conversation with close friends
I always attribute this to G.E. Moore, and it certainly fits with his conclusions in Principia Ethica.
In brief, Moore says that attempts to define that which is good tend to confuse part with whole, or cause with effect, and as such rest on what he dubbed a ‘naturalistic fallacy.’ In Moore’s view, philosophers should not be wasting their time sorting out how to define the good, or listing good things in an attempt to clarify what is good, but should accept that that which is good is that which we intuitively define as good. Finally, and this is where his thinking becomes irresistably attractive to me, he suggests that good can best be seen in the way in which we respond to beautiful objects, and in the way we interact with our friends. If memory serves, he does go so far as to say that aesthetic appreciation and being friends with folk are the ultimate goods.
But, I just half-heartedly skimmed my copy of Principia Ethica, and Googled a few variations on the quote above, to no avail; so I now suspect that something I love saying, and like to believe at times, is in fact my half-memory of my lecturer’s summary of Moore’s thinking. Which I thought was a bit of a bummer, until I realised that every time I’ve misquoted Moore, it’s been prompted by a lively conversation, or prompted one, between friends!
Next week: Wilde’s Preface to Dorian Gray: Profound Truth or Absolute Bollocks? It’s Both!
Of course, I hereby invoke Leon, Submit Response Qualified Philosopher, to correct and clarify the above.
Posted by Jack at 4pm on 30.03.03
Ha. That’s about as much as I remember of Moore as well. He sort of disappeared from my studies when I started specialising, and got lost in reading language theory and endless debates about Kant.
Posted by Leon at 4pm on 30.03.03
Still, look at it this way: if the quote doesn’t turn up in PE, you can just claim it as your own, and be the subject of a fevered debate on the 21st April 2047 edition of “Quote, Unquote”.
Posted by Leon at 5pm on 30.03.03
Hee. My half asleep brain registered this earlier:
Q: How many Quote, Unquote contestants does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: 100. 1 to change it, and the rest to argue about who changed it first.
Posted by Jack at 5pm on 30.03.03
Actually, what you heard was:
Q: How many Quote, Unquote contestants does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: 100 1 to change it, and the rest to argue about who made the first lightbulb joke.
Sorry, but I couldn’t resist such an obvious opportunity to indulge in some acute and apt pedantry.
Posted by Leon at 5pm on 30.03.03
At this point, I feel I should point out to readers that don’t know us in the flesh that Leon and I are not, as it may appear, 65 year-old gentlemen resplendent in smoking jackets and ever-so-slightly jaunty cravats.
Posted by Jack at 5pm on 30.03.03