open-question argument
E143657
The open-question argument is G. E. Moore’s influential philosophical critique of ethical naturalism, claiming that no proposed naturalistic definition of “good” can capture its meaning because it always remains an intelligible open question whether that definition is truly good.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Natural Questions | 1 |
| open-question argument canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1252630 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: open-question argument Context triple: [G. E. Moore, notableIdea, open-question argument]
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A.
.no
.no is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Norway for use in its internet addresses.
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B.
Askival
Askival is the prominent mountain peak that dominates the rugged landscape of the Isle of Rum in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides.
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C.
Open Definition
Open Definition is a set of principles that clearly define what “open” means for data and content, ensuring they can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone.
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D.
Q
The Q is a New York City Subway service that runs along the BMT Broadway Line in Manhattan and the Brighton Line in Brooklyn, providing crosstown and interborough transit.
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E.
Q
Q is a recurring comedic character from the James Bond film series, known as the eccentric head of MI6's gadget and technology division.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: open-question argument Target entity description: The open-question argument is G. E. Moore’s influential philosophical critique of ethical naturalism, claiming that no proposed naturalistic definition of “good” can capture its meaning because it always remains an intelligible open question whether that definition is truly good.
-
A.
.no
.no is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Norway for use in its internet addresses.
-
B.
Askival
Askival is the prominent mountain peak that dominates the rugged landscape of the Isle of Rum in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides.
-
C.
Open Definition
Open Definition is a set of principles that clearly define what “open” means for data and content, ensuring they can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone.
-
D.
Q
The Q is a New York City Subway service that runs along the BMT Broadway Line in Manhattan and the Brighton Line in Brooklyn, providing crosstown and interborough transit.
-
E.
Q
Q is a recurring comedic character from the James Bond film series, known as the eccentric head of MI6's gadget and technology division.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
argument against ethical naturalism
ⓘ
metaethical argument ⓘ philosophical argument ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Moorean intuitionism
ⓘ
linked to:
intuitionism
non-natural property of goodness ⓘ |
| author | G. E. Moore ⓘ |
| conclusion |
good is not analytically equivalent to any natural property
ⓘ
no naturalistic definition of good is adequate ⓘ |
| criticizedBy |
A. J. Ayer
ⓘ
C. L. Stevenson ⓘ Cornell realists ⓘ Frank Jackson ⓘ
linked to:
David Lewis
R. M. Hare ⓘ Richard Boyd ⓘ conceptual role semantics theorists ⓘ |
| field |
analytic philosophy
ⓘ
ethics ⓘ metaethics ⓘ |
| historicalPeriod | early 20th century ⓘ |
| implication |
ethical naturalism fails as a theory of moral meaning
ⓘ
good is a simple, indefinable property ⓘ moral properties are sui generis ⓘ |
| influenced |
20th-century analytic ethics
ⓘ
intuitionism in ethics ⓘ non-naturalist moral realism ⓘ |
| keyClaim |
for any proposed naturalistic definition of good, it remains an open question whether that thing is good
ⓘ
meaning of good cannot be reduced to any natural property term ⓘ the question whether a proposed naturalistic property is good is not trivial or tautological ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainWork | Principia Ethica ⓘ |
| method | conceptual analysis of moral terms ⓘ |
| opposesView |
good is identical to any single natural property
ⓘ
good is identical to pleasure ⓘ good is identical to what promotes survival ⓘ good is identical to what we desire to desire ⓘ |
| premise |
if two terms are analytically equivalent, the question of their identity is trivial
ⓘ
questions about the goodness of any natural property are substantive, not trivial ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1903 ⓘ |
| relatedConcept | naturalistic fallacy ⓘ |
| reliesOn |
distinction between analytic and synthetic truths
ⓘ
ordinary language intuitions about moral terms ⓘ |
| supports |
moral non-naturalism
ⓘ
moral realism (non-naturalist) ⓘ |
| targets |
ethical naturalism
ⓘ
naturalistic definitions of good ⓘ |
| usedInDebate |
debates about the analytic-synthetic distinction in ethics
ⓘ
debates over moral naturalism vs non-naturalism ⓘ debates over moral reductionism ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: open-question argument Description of subject: The open-question argument is G. E. Moore’s influential philosophical critique of ethical naturalism, claiming that no proposed naturalistic definition of “good” can capture its meaning because it always remains an intelligible open question whether that definition is truly good.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: open-question argument