Texts:2025 The Imperative of Judgment: Difference between revisions
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<h2>The Imperative of Judgment | <h2>The Imperative of Judgment</h2> | ||
<blockquote class="numsoff">An unpublished draft from 1997.</blockquote> | <blockquote class="numsoff">An unpublished draft from 1997.</blockquote> | ||
<p>We find ourselves in a world: to live, we must act, and we must act as best we can | <p>We find ourselves in a world: to live, we must act, and we must act as best we can according to our judgment, whether in result it proves to be foolish or wise. To act according to our judgment, to suffer or enjoy the consequences, to judge anew, to act again, and ever on, that is the human condition. Hence, at its root, education forms the powers of judgment.</p> | ||
<p>Nothing with respect to judgment is given, except its necessity. Where there is life, there is judgment, discrimination, a decision that culminates in action. But judgment does not stop at the border where action begins; judgment pervades action—all living, vital action in which there is an element of responsive control, a perception of the unfolding situation within and without as the act progresses. This perception of the situation, this effort at control, is also judgment—a most crucial form of judgment. Within us, each cell has a certain awareness, a purposeful homeostasis with its environment, and certain capacities to make use of resources surrounding it to maintain itself and to perform its appointed functions. If, for some reason, the cell errs in its judgments, or if the environment and situation in which it finds itself are so extreme that they overwhelm its capacities for discrimination and control, the cell will die or atrophy—its life will end.</p> | <p>Nothing with respect to judgment is given, except its necessity. Where there is life, there is judgment, discrimination, a decision that culminates in action. But judgment does not stop at the border where action begins; judgment pervades action—all living, vital action in which there is an element of responsive control, a perception of the unfolding situation within and without as the act progresses. This perception of the situation, this effort at control, is also judgment—a most crucial form of judgment. Within us, each cell has a certain awareness, a purposeful homeostasis with its environment, and certain capacities to make use of resources surrounding it to maintain itself and to perform its appointed functions. If, for some reason, the cell errs in its judgments, or if the environment and situation in which it finds itself are so extreme that they overwhelm its capacities for discrimination and control, the cell will die or atrophy—its life will end.</p> | ||