Page:Ethics (Moore 1912).djvu/126

126 or implies by these words will be either that he thinks it to be so or that he knows it to be so, although neither of these two things can possibly constitute the whole of what he means to assert. And it is quite possible to hold that, as between these two alternatives which he expresses or implies, it is always the first only, and never the second, which is expressed or implied. That is to say, it may be held, that we always only believe or think that an action is right or wrong, and never really know which it is; that, when, therefore, we assert one to be so, we are always merely expressing an opinion or belief, never expressing knowledge.

This is a view which is quite tenable, and for which there is a great deal to be said; and it is, I think, certainly liable to be confused with that other, quite untenable, view, that, when a man asserts an action to be right or wrong, all that he means to assert is that he thinks it to be so. The two are, in fact, apt to be expressed in exactly the same language. If a man asserts “Such and such an action was wrong,” he is liable to be met by the rejoinder, “What you really mean is that