value judgment

noun

1. an estimate, usually subjective, of the worth, quality, goodness, evil, etc., of something or someone.

value judgment

noun

1. a subjective assessment based on one's own code of values or that of one's class

value judgment

1. An assessment of a person, situation, or event. The term is often restricted to assessments that reveal the values of the person making the assessment rather than the objective realities of what is being assessed.

Notes

We often make value judgments without realizing that we are doing so. For example, a teacher who describes a student as “the best I've ever taught — very polite and obedient” is making a value judgment about the qualities (politeness and obedience) that make a student good.

Word History and Origins

Origin of value judgment¹

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

There’s no value judgment here—it’s not a punishment, it’s a safety feature.

From MIT Technology Review

In the end, the Court made a value judgment that health inspections are sufficiently important that they should continue, but union organizing is not.

From Vox

But to keep the economy running, each decision becomes a value judgment.

From The Daily Beast

Only so can we satisfy the concrete value-judgment of the young matriculant in the great school of applied religion.

From Project Gutenberg

A value-judgment which is not also a judgment of existence is in the air; it is the baseless fabric of a vision.

From Project Gutenberg

Value as established, Dewey continues, must be taken into consideration in making a value judgment.

From Project Gutenberg

It is, as usual, the psychological characteristics of the value judgment that attract Dewey's attention.

From Project Gutenberg