The arc of the moral universe: two versions
[ by Charles Cameron — MLK and Cardinal George ]
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Both Martin Luther King, Jr and Francis, Cardinal George, know how to turn a well-turned phrase. Both make strong statements, and although they seem to take opposite tacks on the surface, I’m not sure that in the long view they conflict.
Cardinal George died yesterday, may he rest in peace.
April 19th, 2015 at 1:38 am
Though MLK was a fine rhetorician, he does not deserve credit for this sentence.
See:
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/15/arc-of-universe/
April 19th, 2015 at 4:04 pm
Thanks @Gray Hat for pointing to history of this quote.
April 19th, 2015 at 10:29 pm
If the moral universe does bend towards justice, does this mean that justice has a center-seeking force that accelerates the moral universe towards its center and the moral universe doesn’t have a force? Or does it mean that the moral universe has either a negative or positive charge, and justice has a force-field making the moral universe bend from its existing course?
And, in the second scenario, where is the moral universe going, before it hits justice’s force-field? In other words, does the moral universe even exist without justice or injustice?
April 20th, 2015 at 1:39 am
As construed today justice is a circular concept. We think of justice as we do because we have been taught to do so and it’s how we make sense of our universe. However, what we think of as just may not be thought so by the English and French let alone by the Saudis or Pakistanis.
April 20th, 2015 at 1:50 pm
So justice is a cultural entity. The moral universe is the quantum field that cultural entities such as justice exist in. Some entities, such as justice, have so much moral mass that they bend the fabric and act as attractors to any trajectory in the moral universe.