Moore’Moore’s Proof: Plainness and Purity

Kelly Dean Jolley

Auburn University

What ought we make of Moore's Proof of an External World?  I argue that the Proof is not epistemological, at least not when considered from head-on. (This is the first half of the paper.)  But it also seems possible to consider the Proof from sideways-on.  To try to do so, I enlist the aid of Thompson Clarke.  I speculate on what we ought make of the Proof from sideways-on, if indeed we can make anything of it from there.  I conclude by considering whether Moore, in Proving, has available the resources to resist consideration from sideways-on.  (This is the second half of the paper.)