2. What Thought Takes On

What is judgment?

It is not the act of choosing the correct answer.

At least, that is not what it was for me.

Judgment is the act of fixing a single result as reality,

after having accepted all the conditions.

It is not about searching for the 'most correct one' among the options.

It is about cutting off all other possibilities with your own hands.

And, with the understanding that those discarded possibilities

can never be recovered,

continuing to move forward regardless.

That is judgment.

Therefore, a state where hesitation remains at the moment of judgment

means one has not yet reached a judgment.

For hesitation is a state where the location of responsibility is not fixed.

As long as the thought of 'what if I had made a different choice' persists,

the subject continues to escape into the future.

Then, where does ethics exist?

In society?

In the law?

In culture?

Or perhaps the consensus of the majority?

To me, it did not seem that those were ethics themselves.

They are all 'results' of ethics manifested,

and not ethics themselves.

Ethics does not exist immediately before a judgment.

It does not exist outside of judgment either.

Ethics arises only within the subject,

at the very moment a judgment is made.

Ethics before it is shared with others.

Ethics before it is put into words.

Ethics before it is evaluated.

It is always isolated.

That is precisely why ethics is unstable.

Even in the same situation, if the subject changes, the ethics change.

Even for the same subject, it changes shape due to time and memory.

Yet, ethics still holds true,

because the subject who made the judgment exists there.

Then, when and to whom does responsibility arise?

Responsibility does not arise in response to a result.

Nor is it something imposed after the result has emerged.

Responsibility arises the moment you accept a judgment.

It has already occurred.

Even if it is a choice forced upon you by someone else,

if you are the one who ultimately recognizes that you 'chose' it,

responsibility remains there.

You cannot escape it.

Thought that does not recognize responsibility wavers.

It lines up conditions, expands possibilities,

and puts off making a decision.

That is not caution; it is indecision.

I think while recognizing responsibility.

That is why I can make judgments.

Because I can make judgments, I do not waver.

And just because I do not waver,

it does not mean that regret disappears.

Regret remains.

Failure also remains.

That is unavoidable.

However, they do not become material to negate the judgment.

Regret and failure are

Outside of judgment, it is merely accumulated as memory.

Judgment is,

Ethics is,

Responsibility is,

all completed within the subject.

When one accepts that fact,

thought finally finishes preparing to move to the next stage.