Single Idea 6680

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / j. Ethics by convention]

Full Idea

It is a funny sort of justice whose limits are marked by a river; true on this side of the Pyrenees, false on the other.

Gist of Idea

It is a funny sort of justice whose limits are marked by a river

Source

Blaise Pascal (Pensées [1662], 60 (294))

Book Reference

Pascal,Blaise: 'Pensées', ed/tr. Krailsheimer,A.J. [Penguin 1966], p.46


A Reaction

Pascal gives nice concise summaries of our intuitions. Legal justice may be all we can actually get, but everyone knows that what happens to someone could be 'fair' on one side of a river, and very 'unfair' on the other.