ABSTRACT
We have the words, assessment, appraisal, evaluation, criticism, judgment. No doubt their senses are different. But I do not want now to distinguish between them. I want to consider instead one way in which we distinguish, within the application of each, between different kinds of assessment, appraisal or judgment. For some of these kinds we have special names: we speak of moral or logical or aesthetic appraisal, criticism or judgment. More often, perhaps, we speak of judging a thing from such-and-such a point of view, or by such-and-such standards, or of judging it as a so-and-so. Thus things may be judged by military or financial standards; from the soldier’s, the plumber’s or the economist’s point of view; a thing may be judged as a piece of plumbing, as an investment, as a work of art or as a concert-hall. It is not redundant when we are assessing something, say an X, to precede our verdict with the phrase, ‘as an X’; to say ‘As an X, it is good, fair, bad’. It is not redundant, for there are many points of view from which anything can be assessed; and it is an important fact that we can sometimes make our point of view clear by using the ordinary classificatory name for a thing, by speaking of judging it as an X, where ‘X’ is that name.
