Apart from being predicted the most popular name for both boys and girls in 2023, justice is the process humans use to ensure that all parties involved in a conflagration are left with what they are due after their disagreement. For example, after a monkey knife fight there is often a disagreement regarding the settling of bets. This conflict is resolved with a healthy dose of justice, which could be used to settle the bet via the correct distribution of funds, or an additional, no-holds-barred, to-the-death monkey knife fight.
Famously blind, justice is personified as a woman holding a set of scales in one hand and a monkey-fight knife in the other. She wears a blindfold and a long gown of pure white cotton, which indicates that she is both blind to the history and status of those whom she judges, as well as being very a la mode.
There are three levels of justice. From most to least reasonable they are,
fair,
eye for an eye, and
bloody vengeance.
In fair justice, all those involved are returned - as much as possible - to the states they were in before the effects of their conflict. For example, if money is stolen, it is returned to its rightful owner. Or, if a spouse has been unfaithful, it is returned to its rightful owner.
When justice is eye for an eye then, “those who have had something bad done to them are given the chance to do that same thing to those what done it to them.”1 If a spouse is unfaithful then it is understood that that spouse’s partner can demand to have an affair without feeling guilty. Because of this attempt to balance one bad act with another, it is often said that an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind, as demonstrated here.
“An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” - Gandhi
In a justice system based on bloody vengeance, it is expected that when a human is harmed, it can freely rampage against those who harmed it. If the human’s spouse is killed, it is acceptable for that human to kill the killer. This is different from the eye for an eye case because under that system it would be reasonable for the victim’s spouse to kill the killer’s spouse. Of course, bloody vengeance is simply an extreme version of eye for an eye and, as is often said, an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
“An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” - Everything2
