University of Virginia Library

Practical judgments

By a practical judgment is meant the conscious recall of a concrete past experience and the determination of some action by means of this consciously recalled event. I find that it will be necessary for me to secure a new stenographer. I solve the problem by consciously recalling how I got one before. Upon the basis of that consciously recalled previous

experience I decide how to act now. This is a practical judgment.

In strictness what is capitalized is not the practical judgment itself but the original concrete experience that is recalled at a later time, and upon the basis of which a practical judgment is formed.

Practical judgments cannot be more comprehensive than one's previous experience. The necessary condition for fertility in the formations of practical judgments is therefore richness of previous experience. Indeed one's practical judgments are much more restricted than one's actual experiences. A practical judgment is dependent not merely upon having had the necessary experience, but upon the recall of it at the appropriate occasion. The key to a side door of my house was temporarily lost. After trying scores of keys, I found that a key to a room in the attic would also open the side door. This side-door key was again carried off last week. After much vexation and after trying numerous keys, I again discovered that the key to the room in the attic would open the

side door. I failed to make the necessary practical judgment. If when the key was lost the second time I had recalled my former experience and had taken advantage of it, I would have formed a practical judgment and would have saved myself much inconvenience.

The formation of practical judgments is not a high form of thought. Indeed it is held by many that the animals are capable of some form of practical judgment. A much more effective form of thought is the formation of reflective judgments.