  Suppose, for instance, someone proposes that goodness can be defined in terms of causality and pleasure. To be good, they claim, is just to cause pleasure. Moore’s view is that if this definition were correct, it would be a closed question whether something that causes pleasure is good. For in effect one would be asking whether something that causes pleasure causes pleasure, and that is clearly a closed question. But, Moore insists, the question “is something that causes pleasure good?” is an open question. One could, without conceptual confusion, debate whether something that causes pleasure is good. So goodness cannot be defined as causes pleasure.