What's Wrong with Moore's Argument?
Abstract
Moore looked at his hands and argued: (1) Here are two hands. (2) If hands exist, then there is an external world. (3) So there is an external world.1 Something about this argument sounds funny. As we’ll see, though, it takes some care to identify exactly what Moore has done wrong. I will assume that Moore knows premise (2) to be true. One could inquire into how he knows it, and whether that knowledge can be defeated;
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If that demanding epistemic principle is correct, it is hard to see how our beliefs in any domain can escape skepticism.
“The problem is that it is hard to see how our beliefs in any domain can escape skepticism if this idea is correct”
From Hope for the Evolutionary Debunker: How Evolutionary Debunking Arguments and Arguments from Moral Disagreement Can Join Forces (2022) · cites this paper as Pryor 2004
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Tersman, F., & Risberg, O. (2022) · Ethical Theory and Moral Practice · doi:10.1007/s10677-022-10275-y · Cited by 2 · see citing works
- Authors
- Pryor, J.
- Affiliations
- Princeton University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pryor, James
- Venue
- Philosophical Issues
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2004-10
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 349-378
- ISSN
- 1533-6077 (ISSN-L)
- 1758-2237
- OpenAlex
- W2164952147
- Cited by
- 705
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 58 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 59 · 2020: 60 · 2019: 95 · 2018: 42 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 33 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 27
- FWCI
- 82.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Philosophical Issues (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophical Ethics and Theory
- Keywords
- external world skepticism, external world, epistemology of perception
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