I just started Fear and Trembling by Kierkegaard. Here’s an excerpt from the first paragraph of the second chapter:

An old proverb fetched from the outward aspect of the visible world says: “Only the man that works gets the bread.” Strangely enough this proverb does not aptly apply in that world to which it expressly belongs. For the outward world is subjected to the law of imperfection, and again and again the experience is repeated that he too who does not work gets the bread, and that he who sleeps gets it more abundantly than the man who works. In the outward world everything is made payable to the bearer, this world is in bondage to the law of indifference, and to him who has the ring, the spirit of the ring is obedient, whether he be Noureddin or Aladdin, and he who has the world’s treasure, has it, however he got it. It is different in the world of spirit. Here an eternal divine order prevails, here it does not rain both upon the just and upon the unjust, here the sun does not shine both upon the good and upon the evil, here it holds good that only he who works gets the bread, only he who was in anguish finds repose, only he who descends into the underworld rescues the beloved, only he who draws the knife gets Isaac.

I think I’m going to like this book. If you’re interested but don’t want to shell out the money for your own copy, the entire text is online here.

I think this passage illuminates something C.S. Lewis touched on. Almost every human has a conception of justice and what is fair. This is usually a very strong notion. But when you look at the world around us, it’s hardly fair. The natural law is that the strong take, and the weak are taken or taken from. Goodness is not rewarded unless it translates into strength. I think most people would agree that this isn’t really “fair.”

Where we get this concept of fairness from is a mystery, since it rarely actually exists in nature. Lewis says that this conception is inborn in humanity and present because of our formation in God’s image. Many of the philosophers (excluding most of the Postmodern persuasion) would say that this is simply human transcendence—rising above nature.

Anyway, I have my thoughts (I’m in the Lewis camp). I want to hear yours. Why do we have a conception of justice that is thoroughly unrealistic (meaning seldom found in our perceivable reality)?