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PRINCIPIA ETHICA
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
C. F. CLAY, Manager
LONDON: FETTER LANE, E.C. 4
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[p. iii]
PRINCIPIA ETHICA
BY
GEORGE EDWARD MOORE
LITT.D. CAMBRIDGE, HON. LL.D. ST ANDREWS,
FELLOW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY,
LECTURER IN MORAL SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
“Everything is what it is,
and not another thing”
Bishop Butler
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1922
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First Edition 1903
Reprinted 1922
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DOCTORIBUS AMICISQUE CANTABRIGIENSIBUS
DISCIPULUS AMICUS CANTABRIGIENSIS
PRIMITIAS
D. D. D.
AUCTOR
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PREFACE.
It appears to me that in Ethics, as in all otherphilosophical studies, the difficulties and disagreements, of whichits history is full, are mainly due to a very simple cause: namely tothe attempt to answer questions, without first discovering preciselywhat question it is which you desire to answer. I do not know howfar this source of error would be done away, if philosophers wouldtry to discover what question they were asking, before they setabout to answer it; for the work of analysis and distinction is oftenvery difficult: we may often fail to make the necessary discovery,even though we make a definite attempt to do so. But I am inclinedto think that in many cases a resolute attempt would be sufficientto ensure success; so that, if only this attempt were made, many ofthe most glaring difficulties and disagreements in philosophy woulddisappear. At all events, philosophers seem, in general, not to makethe attempt; and, whether in consequence of this omission or not