Everything is what it is, and nothing is what it seems

Virginia Woolf

Despite its fame, "Principia Ethica" by G.E. Moore is actually a philosophical hoax. It's a long, incoherent rambling which shows that there is indeed something very wrong with a certain kind of modern philosophy. With apologies to Richard Dawkins: "Modern philosophy? Is that even a subject?"

Moore makes (or seems to be making - I couldn't always make it out) the following propositions:

1. The "good" cannot de defined in terms of anything else. The good is simply good, and that's the end of it. Everyone who tries to define "good" in terms of something else, commits the "naturalistic fallacy". This is proven by the Open Question Argument.

2. Hedonism is wrong.

3. Aesthetic pleasure and the pleasure of love are good. However, that's not hedonism.

4. We can know that hedonism is wrong. That's a self-evident truth. Such truths are known by intuition.

5. Intuition isn't certain.

6. Right actions increase the amount of good in the world. However, we can never be sure whether an action actually does this. We can only guess. (And remember: the good cannot be defined, and our intuitions aren't certain either.)

7. No action is good in itself.

8. The action of aesthetic contemplation *is* good in itself.

9. None of the above makes any sense whatsoever (admitted by Moore in an unpublished manuscript).

*This* is the most famous metaethical text of the 20th century? Gee, what a mindjob. Whaddya say to a thing like that?

Perhaps it's best not to say anything at all...

Besides, Moore never answers the most important question: Why were people afraid of Virginia Woolf?!