Justice Stories - #15

The mistaken belief that you understand how ultimate Reality works.

The feeling of injustice comes from believing that we know how things ought to be.

We all tell ourselves certain stories that make us believe that things should be a certain way. This means we are comparing what’s actually happening to some arbitrary reference to how we believe things should be.

For such a reference to be possible we would have to understand how Reality ultimately operates. But since we don’t understand how Reality ultimately operates, that reference cannot exist, so we cannot say that things should have gone differently–that things were unjust.

Ultimate reality is that which ultimately exists and whose nature is unknown to us.

We don’t know the inner workings of ultimate Reality, so how can we believe that we know how things should have gone? To say that things are “unjust” because they didn’t go some particular way we prefer is very arrogant and superficial, and it makes no sense–because we don’t know how things “should” have gone.

If space-time were the foundation of reality, everything would unfold mechanically. Thus, it would make no sense to speak of justice, purpose, or “extra causes,” since no purpose could exist.

If space-time is the foundation of Reality, then everything is mechanical–it derives from a single starting point, the Big Bang. So things like justice and purpose make no sense. Things proceed as they proceed because everything is cause and effect.

On the other hand, if space-time were not the foundation of reality, there would be something else as the foundation of reality whose nature we do not know. In that case, we could never truly say that anything is “unjust,” because we do not know the ultimate nature of reality.

So far, we have considered this scenario: Everything is mechanical. There is only one way for events to proceed, which is by cause and effect. Therefore the idea of some alternative outcome that would be called “justice” makes no sense.

But now let’s consider a scenario where space-time is not the foundation of ultimate Reality. In that case, we don’t know the underlying nature of ultimate Reality. It may be more than determinism–more than cause and effect. It would be very arrogant and superficial to claim that anything is “unjust” since we do not understand how ultimate Reality works.

To judge presumes knowing the ultimate nature of reality, including whether purpose or “extra causes” exist. Since we do not know the ultimate nature of reality, any attempt to predict what should happen is futile. And without that ability, any judgment becomes meaningless.

In order to judge, we have to know the nature of ultimate Reality, which could include other factors such as “purpose” and “extra causes.”

However, we do not know the nature of ultimate Reality.

Since we do not know the nature of ultimate Reality, we cannot make predictions of what “should” happen.

And since we cannot make predictions, judgement is not possible.