Page:Ethics (Moore 1912).djvu/63

 when both A and B contain an excess of pain over pleasure, but A contains a smaller excess than B. Whenever in stating this theory, I have spoken of one whole, or effect, or set of effects, A, as containing more pleasure than another, B, I have always meant merely that A was related to B in one or other of these five ways. And so here, when our theory says that every whole which contains a greater amount of pleasure is always intrinsically better than one which contains less, and that nothing can be intrinsically better than anything else unless it contains more pleasure, this must be understood to mean that any whole, A, which stands to another, B, in any one of these five relations, is always intrinsically better than B, and that no one thing can be intrinsically better than another, unless it stands to it in one or other of these five relations. And it becomes important to remember this, when we go on to take account of another fact.

It is plain that when we talk of one thing being “better” than another we may mean any one of five different things. We may