Moral Judgment as Prospective and Consequential

Where it surfaces

• Habits as Social Functions

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

• Part III: The Place of Intelligence in Conduct

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

• Deliberation and Calculation

  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.

• The Uniqueness of Good

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

• The Present and Future

  Moral judgment involves projecting future consequences to appraise present significance, but the end is the enrichment of present activity, not a remote goal.

• The Good of Activity

  Moral judgment is about the better-or-worse quality of acts, based on observation of conditions and outcomes, and is subject to revision.