Bloomsbury's Prophet: G. E. Moore and the Development of His Moral Philosophy

Description:
Canonized as the ""plain man's philosopher"" and the ""defender of common sense,"" G. E. Moore is one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. But Moore's role as Bloombury's prophet has remained a mystery. How could the ""plain man's philosopher"" influence those legendary members of the Bloomsbury group--Lytton Strachey and John Maynard Keynes, for example--who could never be characterized as plain men?

With this book, well-known contemporary philosopher Tom Regan solves the mystery. Relying on Moore's published and unpublished work, Regan traces the development of Moore's moral philsophy up to and through his seminal work, Principa Ethica (1903). Regan offers a radical reinterpretation of Principa. Contrary to the standard interpretation, that work's central theme is the liberation of the individual, not dreary conformity to the rules of conventional morality. The Bloomsberries lived Moore's philosophy--the same philosophy subsequent generations have misunderstood.

At once literary and scholarly, Bloomsbury's Prophet challenges received opinions not only about Principa and Moore but about Bloomsbury itself.

Endorsements:
"". . . an entertaining, provocative, and philosophically interesting book.""
--William L. Rowe, Purdue University

""Regan presents a new and unfamiliar portrait of G. E. Moore. Principa Ethica will never seem the same again.""
-- James Rachels, University of Alabama at Birmingham

"". . . serves as a welcome corrective to the typical approach to Moore's early ethical theory. This book should help direct Moore studies for years to come.""
-- John O'Connor

About the Contributor(s):
Tom Regan is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at North Carolina State University and author of The Case for Animal Rights.