Moral Judgment as Prospective and Consequential

The book argues that moral judgment should be forward-looking, focused on modifying conditions and future outcomes, rather than backward-looking praise, blame, or retribution.

Dewey emphasizes that moral judgment should focus on future consequences and the modification of conditions, not on retrospective blame or punishment.

Dewey emphasizes that moral judgment is forward-looking, focusing on the consequences of actions and the imaginative rehearsal of possible outcomes.

Dewey reframes moral judgment as the ongoing appraisal of the tendency of present acts, using imaginative foresight to discern meaning rather than to predict fixed outcomes.

Dewey emphasizes that moral deliberation is about discovering the consequences of competing impulses and habits, not calculating fixed quantities of pleasure.