ABSTRACT
The prevailing, and entirely natural, idea of the dispute with regard to self-contradictory expressions is that philosophers who engage in it have a clear idea of the nature of the problem and of their various theories about its solution, and are disagreeing amongst themselves over which theory is true. Prof. G. E. Moore has stated a striking and important paradox, the investigation of which seems to me to give insight into the nature of many philosophical problems and theories. The phenomenon to which Moore calls our attention, when considered with emotional detachment, is so strange that one cannot help wondering what magic powers exist in a 'philosophical creed' to produce such a remarkable effect on the minds of philosophers. And one cannot help but suspect that at least many, if not all, philosophical propositions are of a different species from the familiar ones we have commerce with in everyday discourse.
