Problems at justice frontiers need humility and self-awareness, not rationalist rigor

Evidence

The language of such demands is not the literal one of a program of action, but the more ancient one of a reminder of responsibility that cannot be shed, ethics that cannot be systematized. Problems at the frontiers of justice demand more in the way of humility, striving, and unfl agging selfawareness than they do in scientistic or rationalist rigor. They require awe at the sheer power of being within history, of being able to infl uence history by connecting thought to action in a world that is already otherwise connected and that, accordingly, will react in ways we cannot foresee and often will not desire. Taken to an extreme, such awe would lead us, like Jainists, to gingerly step behind broomed surfaces, lest we make moves that cause death even to the lives that lie beneath the reach of our vision. But the basic wisdom— the essential wisdom— is that causing death must always be done with solemnity and with the hope of greater precaution tomorrow. — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere, 653

Categorization

• XREF: The Jainist image of broomed surfaces resonates with Soundscape-course listening/observation-as-method — care for the small harms beneath our reach. — connects to: The conversation of justice must not have a victor — Chantal Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox, 345
• ADDENDUM: ‘Causing death must always be done with solemnity’ speaks to the On Sacrifice article’s theme of death as a weight-bearing act of a community.