The Routledge Guidebook to Moore's Principia Ethica by Nuccetelli Susana;

Author:Nuccetelli, Susana;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2021-09-20T00:00:00+00:00

Being the subject matter of the sciences or of ethics

Condition 3 in the above summary of Moore’s criteria distinguishes natural and non-natural properties according to whether they are respectively the subject matter of the natural and social sciences or of ethics. Condition 2 sorts them according to whether the relevant properties are knowable by empirical means or rational intuition. Both types of condition figure prominently in Moore’s attempts to draw that distinction in §26 and §66 of Principia. Condition 3 concerns the method by which properties of either kind can be studied, condition 2 the nature of epistemic justification for beliefs involving the relevant properties. Although both criteria are ultimately epistemological, owing to their emphases, we may call them ‘methodological’ and ‘epistemological’ respectively. Given the methodological criterion, perhaps the best known of the two, unlike non-natural properties, natural properties are “parts of Nature” and constitute the proper subject-matter of the natural and social sciences, including psychology. Criterion 2 adds that, unlike natural properties, non-natural properties can be the objects of neither perception nor introspection. Each criterion, however, faces problems.

Let us consider the methodological criterion first: since the expression ‘natural’ somehow figures in the definition of a natural property, the criterion is blatantly circular. To Moore’s credit, he did not regard this criterion as providing necessary and sufficient conditions for a property to be either natural or non-natural; rather, he took it to provide an intuitive grasp of the relevant distinction (P2: 13). Furthermore, he was aware of the difficulties facing attempts at sharpening the criterion. For suppose we say the following:

A property is natural just in case it plays a role in our scientific laws or explanations.

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