Moore's hands

G. E. Moore’s “Proof of an External World” became a nodal point between several philosophers, such as Wittgenstein, Collingwood and Winch. This chapter focuses particularly on how Collingwood reacted to the “Proof”. Winch did not discuss Moore’s paper as extensively, but he, too, commented on it and indicated central ways in which it related to his own philosophical concerns. Reactions by Wittgenstein, Collingwood, Winch and others are indicative of their metaphilosophical views. In various ways, the “Proof” became their vehicle for voicing their divergent ideas of what philosophy is or should be. One can think of philosophy, as Moore did, as the investigation of what kinds of things exist or, with Collingwood and Winch, as the elucidation of the conditions of meaning.