The Philosopher

G. E. Moore

The face

The background

Nationality:
English

The synopsis

George Edward Moore (4 November 1873 – 24 October 1958) was an English philosopher who, alongside Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and earlier Gottlob Frege, was an initiator of analytic philosophy. He and Russell began de-emphasising the idealism which was then prevalent among British philosophers and became known for advocating common-sense concepts and contributing to ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics. He was said to have had an "exceptional personality and moral character". Ray Monk dubbed him "the most revered philosopher of his era". As Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, he influenced but abstained from the Bloomsbury Group, an informal set of intellectuals. He edited the journal *Mind*. He was a member of the Cambridge Apostles from 1894 to 1901, a fellow of the British Academy from 1918, and was chairman of the Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club in 1912–1944. A humanist, he presided over the British Ethical Union (now Humanists UK) in 1935–1936.

The works

The quotes

The hours I spend with you I look upon as sort of a perfumed garden, a dim twilight, and a fountain singing to it. You and you alone make me feel that I am alive. Other men it is said have seen angels, but I have seen thee and thou art enough.
G. E. Moore
The lot of critics is to be remembered by what they failed to understand.
G. E. Moore
All moral laws are merely statements that certain kinds of actions will have good effects.
G. E. Moore
A great artist is always before his time or behind it.
G. E. Moore
It does not matter how badly you paint so long as you don't paint badly like other people.
G. E. Moore
Faith goes out through the window when beauty comes in at the door.
G. E. Moore