Mr. Moore goes on to inquire what things are good in themselves, as ends
that is to say. He comes to a conclusion with which we all agree, but
for which few could have found convincing and logical arguments: "states
of mind," he shows, alone are good as ends.[9] People who have very
little taste for logic will find a simple and satisfactory proof of this
conclusion afforded by what is called "the method of isolation."

That which is good as an end will retain some, at any rate, of its value
in complete isolation: it will retain all its value as an end. That
which is good as a means only will lose all its value in isolation. That
which is good as an end will remain valuable even when deprived of all
its consequences and left with nothing but bare existence. Therefore, we
can discover whether honestly we feel some thing to be good as an end,
if only we can conceive it in complete isolation, and be sure that so
isolated it remains valuable. Bread is good. Is bread good as an end or
as a means? Conceive a loaf existing in an uninhabited and uninhabitable
planet. Does it seem to lose its value? That is a little too easy. The
physical universe appears to most people immensely good, for towards
nature they feel violently that emotional reaction which brings to the
lips the epithet "good"; but if the physical universe were not related
to mind, if it were never to provoke an emotional reaction, if no mind
were ever to be affected by it, and if it had no mind of its own, would
it still appear good? There are two stars: one is, and ever will be,
void of life, on the other exists a fragment of just living protoplasm
which will never develop, will never become conscious. Can we say
honestly that we feel one to be better than the other? Is life itself
good as an end? A clear judgment is made difficult by the fact that one
cannot conceive anything without feeling something for it; one's very
conceptions provoke states of mind and thus acquire value as means. Let
us ask ourselves, bluntly, can that which has no mind and affects no