Final Exam: Bradley and Moore Flashcards
What is Bradley’s regress?
Suppose an object is unified with its properties by a relation. To explain this unity with a relation, we must explain why the relation unifies the object with its properties. This requires a further relation, leading to an infinite regress of relations. Therefore, monism is true.
What is problematic with Bradley’s regress?
There may be a different explanation for how the relation unifies the object with its properties that does not require a further relation.
What is the absolute?
Bradley’s view that there is fundamentally one harmonious, good, organic unity that makes up the world (no properties, relations). Because it is infinitely complex, and we think in finite predicates, we can’t have perfectly true thoughts about the world.
What is problematic with the absolute?
Our thoughts do not need to match the structure of reality to capture its truth (e.g. a picture of the Himalayas need not be as big as the Himalayas to capture it)
What is Moore’s response to idealists?
Idealists deny the truth of Moore’s common sense truisms. However, no philosopher can consistently hold this view, and by practicing philosophy, they provide evidence negating their view.
What is Moore’s response to skeptics?
Skeptics deny we know Moore’s common sense truisms. However, by claiming “many of us believe the truisms but don’t know them,” the skeptics must be admitting knowledge of “many of us.”
What is problematic with Moore’s response to skeptics?
Skeptics need not say “many of us believe the truisms but don’t know them.” They can say “there seems to be many people who seem to believe the truisms, but these alleged people—if they are real—don’t know them.”
What is Moore’s proof of an external world?
Here is a hand. If there is a hand, then there is an external world. So there is an external world.
What is problematic with Moore’s proof of an external world?
The proof is question begging. The idealist would say hands are not external but mental. Skeptics would say we cannot know there is a hand from our experience of a hand.
What is Moore’s sense-data view?
When we see an object, we directly apprehend sense-data which are objects private to our experience.
What is problematic with Moore’s sense-data view?
It is unclear what the relation is between the object and the sense-data. Furthermore, it is unclear how knowledge of objects would be possible just from sense-data.
What is Moore’s Good-Yellow Analogy?
Definitions give simple parts of the defined object or property. Good is indefinable because—like yellow—it is simple and lacking in parts.
What is Moore’s Open Question Argument?
If two words mean the same things, replacing one word with another in a sentence should not change its cognitive significance. Suppose good is defined as pleasure. The question “x is good but is x good” is trivial while “x is pleasurable but is x good” is an open question. Therefore, good is indefinable.
What is Moore’s What’s at Stake Argument?
Suppose goodness is pleasure. It is conceivable that two people can agree on what is pleasurable but disagree about what is good. If there is a genuine definition (X=Y), then people cannot agree on X while disagreeing on Y. Therefore, there cannot be a genuine definition of what’s good.
What is Moore’s naturalistic fallacy?
Suppose there is a correlation between properties F and G. It is fallacious to suppose that there is then an identity between properties F and G. So the non-normative terms (e.g. pleasure) may correlate with good but are not identical with it.
