Thank you for that very interesting exposition. It provides a personal yet philosophical point of view.

In 1972 I turned twenty. In 1982 I started my own investigation into the question of justice.

Though I do ‘believe in God’, I eventually arrived at an ethic of justice that is the apotheosis of Modern thought in ethics. To me, that is no more egoistical than a scientist realizing the discovery some earth-shaking new insight, like Newton with F=ma or Einstein with E=m[c(c)] (there being no other way, as far as I can discern, to write ‘squared’ mathematically here).

It is strictly rational, involving no beliefs — secular (ideological) or religious (theological). It recognizes the necessity for universality in an ethic of justice while taking into account the postmodern critique of Modern philosophy, accepting the impossibility of ‘objectivity’ (from Derrida) and granting people even their own, individualized ‘realities’ (from Foucault).

The key is this ethic’s referents: actions involving other people in effecting any choice. justice is universal within its domain. Limiting the domain of justice in that way, acknowledging that its applicability is limited to that domain, it is applicable based on actions, regardless of any beliefs, attitudes, values, thoughts, etc. that any person might invoke. Yet, to impact the life of another human being one must be effecting a choice (choosing among perceived alternatives and tacking action towards its fruition), so the domain of justice is suitably expansive.

I have posted a brief summary of this approach to justice here in Medium: “Real Justice (summarized for a ‘5 min read’).” As a species, we simply have to get serious about getting better.