=9.= But I am afraid I have still not removed the chief difficulty
which may prevent acceptance of the proposition that good is
indefinable. I do not mean to say that _the_ good, that which is good,
is thus indefinable; if I did think so, I should not be writing
on Ethics, for my main object is to help towards discovering that
definition. It is just because I think there will be less risk of error
in our search for a definition of ‘the good,’ that I am now insisting
that _good_ is indefinable. I must try to explain the difference
between these two. I suppose it may be granted that ‘good’ is an
adjective. Well ‘the good,’ ‘that which is good,’ must therefore be the
substantive to which the adjective ‘good’ will apply: it must be the
whole of that to which the adjective will apply, and the adjective must
_always_ truly apply to it. But if it is that to which the adjective
will apply, it must be something different from that adjective itself;
and the whole of that something different, whatever it is, will be
our definition of _the_ good. Now it may be that this something will
have other adjectives, beside ‘good,’ that will apply to it. It may be
full of pleasure, for example; it may be intelligent: and if these two
adjectives are really part of its definition, then it will certainly be
true, that pleasure and intelligence are good. And many people appear
to think that, if we say ‘Pleasure and intelligence are good,’ or if we
say ‘Only pleasure and intelligence are good,’ we are defining ‘good.’
Well, I cannot deny that propositions of this nature may sometimes be
called definitions; I do not know well enough how the word is generally
used to decide upon this point. I only wish it to be understood that
that is not what I mean when I say there is no possible definition of
good, and that I shall not mean this if I use the word again. I do most
fully believe that some true proposition of the form ‘Intelligence is
good and intelligence alone is good’ can be found; if none could be
found, our definition of _the_ good would be impossible. As it is,
I believe _the_ good to be definable; and yet I still say that good
itself is indefinable.
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