What is Justice?

[reverendjeremiah]

I absolutely love this kind of dialogue. Honest, sincere, deep, etc. Thank you, in advance, for such a great conversation.

As long as I've got the time, Ill chat all day about anything and everything.

Perhaps we can delve into a bit of why you adhere to the philosophy of Absurdism? If, from this philosophy, much of your belief stems then I think it's important to understand the initial belief. It dose fascinate me, the little I know of it from the Wiki page, but I'm interested if there's more behind your decision. Concluding from this paragraph, however, we can then say that if there is no inherent meaning in the universe then that supposes that there is no universal justice - for then we lack something to judge justice from? Let's assume this is true, what then happens to the ideal of justice - which need not exist, but only conceptually? Is there an ideal justice, which is irrespective of personal opinion? If we say, 'Maybe, but I don't know' or 'no' - then what happens to this concept held by so many people? Does it lose it's affinity for action and emotional appeal? Is it OK to have it as part of the 'justice system' under which we are all held as equals? And perhaps, a bit of a stretch of a question but oh well, does justice necessitate equality? Do equality and justice share a place in our morality?

The philosophy itself is pretty simple. So simple that some people mistake its meaning, or read too much into it. Sure, it is a philosophy, but it didnt catch on big popular until the artists and performers of the early 20th century picked up on it. Most Absurdist dont call themselves absurdists. Most dispise titles. The modern ones (neo-absurdists) have included anti-genre and Chaos/randomness into the philosophy, which I agree belongs in the philosophy.

The absurdist was typically an anti-hero. Someone who questions every sense and situation, but no matter how much they searched or how deep they searched they could find no meaning in life...which eventually led to meaningless actions and events.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdist_fiction

Absurdism is what helped bring about Dadaism as well, which questioned what art really was. The painting "The Treachery of Images" explains some of the basic concepts of the absurd.


"This is not a pipe"

I wish justice could be measured by basic needs. Clean water for all could be a very basic justice. The only problem is not everyone will agree with it for many reasons...racism...profit making..."they are my enemy!"...etc...

From this brief explanation I think you uncover the human nature of us all - and that is conflict. Not necessarily violent, but mostly subjective conflict. Back to the point of justice however, your take on the question is quite interesting in its regress to a more original question of existence. Can we answer the question 'does justice exist'? I think so, and the answer is that it exists as a conception or a thought. This conception is then made ideal by application of time and human nature. But I think the question is 'What is the ideal justice?'. Perhaps there is no answer, as it is subjective - but doesn't every ideal have an image of perfection in which it resides? Essentially, doesn't every ideal have an objective nature which can be described?

Well of course thoughts exist. Thoughts are real in the sense that they DO happen in your mind. If I dream I am riding a unicorn then that dream really happened and I experienced it. This to me is the cause of the duality of humanity. The brain is unable to be aware of its own functioning. Sure, you know you are thinking, but you dont realize that you are merely a brain. It is isolated in flesh and bone yet it has sensors to detect everything outside of it. You can choose to trust that sense or not. even if you do 100% trust your senses, it does not mean that what you sense is factual.

Ever had a dream where you thought you woke up? Then walked around in the dream land until you thought you woke up again, etc...etc..etc... The senses can be fooled, thus causing a duality of man in many ways. We are on the inside looking out and we are all lonely.

Perhaps you are stuck on Plato's theory of forms.

Your humility is refreshing. And i'm consistently amazed at your thoughts and seeming thought process. To identify the human nature of conflict while being able to say that competition is not a good idea is interesting to say the least.

It is the duality of man. All of us have inner contradictions. To deny such would be philosophical suicide. We MUST accept that there is a point where love and hate meld together. Thus the absurd. Thus the saying "The absurd must be embraced and rebeled against at the same time."

My fix? Create a true capitalist society where the government's largest focus is education - provide equal opportunity for all through the process of education and then you will have truly progressive system which abides by human nature at its most fundamental level. To go against human nature is to remove humanity from being - and I'm not that much of a futurist, or merely that humble.

Hmm...me and you might talk more about politics soon...