"MOORE'S MOST FAMOUS PAPER"

MOORE, G. E.

Proof of an External World. Annual Philosophical Lecture Henriette Hertz Trust British Academy.

London, Humphrey Milford, 1939. 8vo. Offprint in the original printed wrappers. Uncut. Ex-libris [Danish philosopher Carl Henrik Koch] pasted on to verso of front wrapper. Wrappers with various nicks and bumped corners and some miscolouring to boarders. Internally with a few occasional very light pencil markings in margin. 30. (1) pp.

First edition of Moore's important paper on the existence of an external world.

In "Moore's most famous paper, his 'Proof of an External World' [...] [he] sets himself the task of doing what Kant had earlier set himself to do, namely providing a proof of the existence of 'external objects'. Much of the lecture is devoted to working out what counts as an 'external object', and Moore claims that these are things whose existence is not dependent upon our experience. So, he argues, if he can prove the existence of any such things, then he will have proved the existence of an 'External World'. Moore then maintains that he can do this"(SEP): "By holding up my two hand, 'Here is one hand' and adding, as I make a certain gesture with the left, 'and here is another'.(p. 25). [...] But did I prove just now that two human hands were then in existence? I do want to insist that I did; that the proof which I gave was a perfectly rigorous one; and that it is perhaps impossible to give a better or more rigorous proof of anything whatever".

Order-nr.: 45021