How 'moraliity' has failed to adapt

 Dewey believed that neither traditional moral norms nor traditional philosophical ethics were able to cope with the problems raised by these dramatic transformations. 

Traditional morality was adapted to conditions that no longer existed. Hidebound and unreflective, it was incapable of changing to address the problems raised by new circumstances. 

Traditional philosophical ethics sought to discover and justify fixed moral goals and principles by dogmatic methods. 

Its preoccupation with reducing the diverse sources of moral insight to a single fixed principle subordinated practical service to ordinary people to the futile search for certainty, stability, and simplicity. In practice, both traditional morality and philosophical ethics served the interests of elites at the expense of most people. 

To address the problems raised by social change, moral practice needed to acquire the disposition to respond intelligently to new circumstances.