ABSTRACT

G. E. Moore has been associated with the enemies of metaphysics who have more or less dominated British thought in recent years. In fact however he was very far from either leading them in the attack or following in their wake. He never denied the possibility of metaphysics nor had he any general epistemological theory which would have required him to do so. He did not hold either the verification theory of meaning or the analytic theory of a priori propositions and inferences, the two foundations of the ruthless attack on metaphysics in the thirties. And although he gave the impetus which started the linguistic school of philosophy, he cannot himself be regarded as a typical linguist.