What is Justice?

 During Egyptian civilization, Maat or Ma'at (thought to have been pronounced *[muʔ.ʕat]), also spelled māt or mayet, was the ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, law, morality, and justice. Maat was also personified as a goddess regulating the stars, seasons, and the actions of both mortals and the deities. The deities set the order of the universe from chaos at the moment of creation. Her (ideological) counterpart was Isfet, who symbolized chaos, lies, and injustice.^[2][3]

 It is an interesting question regarding Justice. Believe it or not I have held this mantra at my lips for a long time. So yes then, I raise the question of what Justice means. Philosophically this blog entry has found the right place as to the questions regarding it.

The notion of justice as a virtue began in reference to a trait of individuals, and to some extent remains so, even if today we often conceive the justice of individuals as having some (grounding) reference to social justice. But from the start, the focus on justice as a virtue faced pressures to diffuse, in two different ways. Justice as a Virtue -LeBar, Mark and Slote, Michael, "Justice as a Virtue", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = .

 I would have attended to the first part that the suggestion would be raised as to the "trait of an individual,"  and then lost as to the many thoughts each individual could have explain as being. . But I always sought something deeper in the individual.....as acting in accordance to some moral code. So the "symbol of Justice,"  goes way back in our historical ventures so as to see that the scales can be used to weight anything against something else? More to then,  that Justice can be logically deduced by our esteem lawyers to have us conclude what? Yes, a very interesting question.

In Kant we see the completion of the distinction between justice as a virtue and justice as a norm to which a virtue may or may not correspond. While Kant has a theory (or “doctrine”) of virtue, he distinguishes that theory precisely against a counterpoised theory of justice. The two are complementary elements in the “metaphysics of morals.” Moreover, the doctrine of justice itself has two parts, roughly corresponding to the distinction present since Plato’s work, between the role of justice in the individual and the role of justice in the state. Kant calls these “private right” and “public right,” respectively. But right in either case is not how Kant at least conceives of virtue; instead, it is a “condition” that can obtain between the moral agents comprising a moral or legal community, in virtue of their principles of choice in acting (Kant 1797). Little remains here of the notion of justice as a virtue of individuals as it began with the ancient Greeks. LeBar, Mark and Slote, Michael, "Justice as a Virtue", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = .

 So what is judgement then,  as,  having but concluded? If there is but little justice left in the individual,  then how is such a private judgement made? I must add, that the understanding here then,  is that,"the doctrine of justice itself has two parts," and that,  Justice,  once understood as virtue in the individual, does become an understanding of "Justice in the state."

René Descartes

For the Rationalist philosopher René Descartes, virtue consists in the correct reasoning that should guide our actions. Men should seek the sovereign good that Descartes, following Zeno, identifies with virtue, as this produces a solid blessedness or pleasure. For Epicurus the sovereign good was pleasure, and Descartes says that in fact this is not in contradiction with Zeno's teaching, because virtue produces a spiritual pleasure, that is better than bodily pleasure. Regarding Aristotle's opinion that happiness depends on the goods of fortune, Descartes does not deny that these goods contribute to happiness, but remarks that they are in great proportion outside one's own control, whereas one's mind is under one's complete control. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue#Ren.C3.A9_Descartes

 This understanding of virtue,  goes toward the foundation of first principles.

An Argument Against Reality

See: The Evolutionary Argument Against Reality

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Cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman explains why human perceptions of an independent reality are all illusions. See: The Case against Reality

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See Also:

•  Talking About How We See Reality

The Nature of Reality

See: The Nature of Reality: A Dialogue Between a Buddhist Scholar and a Theoretical Physicist

Plato at the Googleplex

Rebecca Goldstein: "Plato at the Googleplex" | Talks at Google

Quantum Technologies

As We Enter a New Quantum Era: Michele Mosca Public Lecture 

 

Published on Oct 6, 2016

In his public lecture at Perimeter Institute on Oct. 5, 2015, Michele Mosca (Institute for Quantum Computing, Perimeter Institute) explored quantum technologies – those that already exist, and those yet to come – and how they will affect our lives.

A Planetarium Show by ESO

The planetarium show "From Earth to the Universe" v2

 European Southern Observatory (ESO)

SWARM

Launched in November 2013, Swarm is providing unprecedented insights into the complex workings of Earth’s magnetic field, which safeguards us from the bombarding cosmic radiation and charged particles.

June 2014 magnetic field

Measurements made over the past six months confirm the general trend of the field’s weakening, with the most dramatic declines over the Western Hemisphere. SEE: Swarm reveals Earth's changing Magnetism

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Geodynamics

Mean Gravity Field

Image credit: Unless otherwise noted, images are provided by University of Texas Center for Space Research and NASA

 On planet Earth, we tend to think of the gravitational effect as being the same no matter where we are on the planet. We certainly don't see variations anywhere near as dramatic as those between the Earth and the Moon. But the truth is, the Earth's topography is highly variable with mountains, valleys, plains, and deep ocean trenches. As a consequence of this variable topography, the density of Earth's surface varies. These fluctuations in density cause slight variations in the gravity field, which, remarkably, GRACE can detect from space.

AMS-02

Information gathering. Unlock Secrets of the Cosmos

AMS-02 is a multipurpose magnetic spectrometer designed to measure elementary particles and nuclei to the TeV region. In the five years since its installation on the International Space Station, it has collected more than 90 billion cosmic rays. Some of the unexpected results and their possible interpretations will be presented.

The Foundation of Reality?

I had been on this pathway a long time to ask the question of what lays at the very foundation of our reality.  I was intrigued by Plato's solids to wonder if this was the first attempt to describe the nature of reality as it is?

 The Planck scale is the universal limit, beyond which the currently known laws of physics break. In order to comprehend anything beyond it, we need new, unbreakable physics See: The Planck Scale

I was constraint then to know that what lies beyond the Planck scale to say what if anything could we measure that we could call the item of dissertation as a particulate of this reality,  then becomes the materialist function I choose to describe reality,  as it is.

Thomas Young (13 June 1773 – 10 May 1829)

But more then this, an experiment speaks to me about what the idea is that once I as a detector look at what the photon is doing through the Double slit experiment, is to cancel out the wave function. So some may say,  on observation,  I create the the foundation of this reality by observing?