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G.E. Moore was a humanist analytic philosopher of the early 20th century.
Much of his ideas resonate with Dooyeweerd's ideas about the ethical aspect. But Dooyeweerd can take him further. The following table compares and contrasts the two thinkers briefly.
| Moore | Dooyeweerd agrees | Dooyeweerd disagrees |
Dooyeweerd enriches (takes further) |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is Good ? | |||
| Asking the question, "What is Good?" | We must distinguish between Goodness as a whole and kinds of Good. | Goodness as a whole is blessing that is added beyond the dictates of law (retribution); to go beyond is close to the kernel meaning of the ethical aspect. Each basic kind of Good is defined and made possible by a different aspect, such as biotic Good (health), social Good (togetherness), aesthetic Good (harmony), etc. | |
| Good is a simple and indefinable notion. | As the kernel meaning of an aspect, Good as a whole, and the various kinds of Good, are basic and fundamental, which can never be adequately defined. |
This applies both to Good as a whole and each kind of Good, in its basic manifestation
Dooyeweerd explains why it is indefinable - because it is the meaning-kernel of an aspect. | |
| "Good" can refer to good in itself and to a causal means to other things. | 1. Good-in-itself: The aspects, and their meaning-kernels, transcend | ||
| Good links closely with value. | If something is Good then it is valuable. Each kind of Good is a kind of value. | Aspects define distinct kinds of value, and with aspectual analysis we may usefully untangle kinds of value of things or situations. | |
| Our knowledge of Good in itself comes from our intuitions (self-evident). | Kernel meanings can be grasped with intuition rather than theoretical thought. | The aspects define different kinds of intuition. Self-evidentiality is because we function in all aspects, as a fish exists and swims within and because of the ocean. | |
| Our knowledge of goodness as a means comes from inference from other things. | Means are rooted in our deliberate formative functioning, which depends foundationally on our analytical functioning | ||
| What things are Good or Bad in themselves? | |||
| Things are good NOT because of natural properties. | It is aspectual meaningfulness that enables properties, is the very ground of property-ness. | ||
| Pleasure is good in itself, but not the only intrinsically good thing. | Pleasure is (part of) the kernel meaning of the aesthetic and sensitive aspects; there are 13 other aspects too. | ||
| The beauty of a landscape is so, even though nobody is there to enjoy it. | Everything is meaningful in all aspects, whether people engage with them or not. | Dooyeweerd diffeentiates between functioning as subject and as object, and being meaningful in an aspect. For example, beauty is something meaningful in the aesthetic aspect, and things exhibit this aspect without people engaging with them, but they are beautiful (temporally) only when a human engages. The beauty (or ugliness) is always true of the landscape potentially and is actualized when people engage with it. | |
| What is Good as a means? | |||
| Acting well produces good results. | When we function in an aspect, there are repecussions, meaningful to that aspect. e.g. eating well makes us healthy; injustice breeds injustice; etc. | ||
| Associated with "What ought we to do?" | "ought" is a word that gains its meaningfulness from the juridical aspect. Each aspect is a sphere of law, (i.e. offers distinct kinds of laws to enable temporal reality to function) implies that each aspect defines a distinct kind of "ought". | The aspectual way of understanding both Good and law is probably unique to Dooyeweerd. | |
| The right thing to do is that which will produce MOST Good. | "Most" is meaningful in the quantitative aspect. | Goodness cannot be reduced to amount. | Therefore there are many right things to do, each with different repercussions. We need wisdom and humility and goodwill rather than calculation. |
This page, 'http://www.dooy.info/ext/moore.html', is part of a collection of pages that links to various thinkers, within The Dooyeweerd Pages, which explain, explore and discuss Dooyeweerd's interesting philosophy. Email questions or comments would be welcome.
Written on the Amiga and Protext in the style of classic HTML.
Copyright (c) at all dates below Andrew Basden. But you may use this material subject to conditions.
Created: 8 February 2024. Last updated: