User talk:ES8592/Principia Ethica

Greg's Thoughts
EDIT (April 28) I see now that most of the changes I'm talking about below are for changes MELODY made. Sorry for any confusion! But that means that Eleanor and anybody else working on this Principia Ethica page needs to make some other substantive improvements to this page.

Overall, this is substantive, nice work! Here are a few thoughts I had, as I looked through your revisions.


 * 1) Lead paragraph: You write "He concludes that "good" is indefinable and introduces a flaw in attempting to define "good", known as the naturalistic fallacy." The connection between the first half of this sentences and the second needs to be clearer/ more explicit: Moore thinks 'good' is indefinable BECAUSE any reasonable attempt to define it commits the naturalistic fallacy. I.e. the naturalistic fallacy is his reason/justification/support for "The word 'good' is indefinable"
 * 2) Under the "What is good?" section, you write: "Moore insists that this term is simple and therefore indefinable." This is correct, but I think it would be even better if you spelled out how that "therefore" works -- i.e. WHY should something that is simple be indefinable?
 * 3) At the end of that same subsection, you write "unlike our knowledge of goodness as a means or of duties". The "as a means" part makes perfect sense, given what's come just before. But I don't understand the "or of duties" bit? Either explain that, or cut it. (The footnote currently at the end of that sentence is a reference to the Preface of Principia Ethica, but I just Ctrl+F'ed 'duty' and 'duties' in the Preface, and I couldn't find Moore saying this)
 * 4) Tiny phrasing point: fallacies (like the Naturalistic Fallacy) are COMMITTED; they are not "invoked". (The meaning is perfectly clear, it's just that there is a standard terminology, and it sounds a little weird when the standard one isn't used -- it's like if I said "I'm going to do a walk" instead of "I'm going to take a walk")
 * 5) Tiny typographical point: at the very end, you write: " John Maynard Keynes, an early devotee of Principia Ethica, would in his 1938 paper My Early Beliefs repudiate as Utopian Moore's underlying belief in human reasonableness and decency." As a general rule, BOOK titles are placed in italics, not quotation marks (so Principia Ethica, not "Principia Ethica"), whereas ARTICLE and chapter titles are the reverse (so "My Early Beliefs," not My Early Beliefs).

OK that's more than enough from me! RudyCarnap (talk) 19:38, 27 April 2023 (UTC)