The Continuity of Judgment

What is judgment?

It is not a momentary decision.

Generally, judgment is thought of as a choice made on the spot.

But that captures only a small part of the act of judgment.

Judgment does not conclude at the moment of action.

Judgment is the state of having accepted responsibility, which continues thereafter.

After the results have occurred,

with the understanding that they cannot be undone,

one continues to hold that choice as one's own.

That state is what judgment is.

Therefore, judgment has time.

It is not something that is made once and finished,

but something that continues to live alongside its results.

Then, is a split-second action not a judgment?

For example, suppose a person jumps out while you are driving a car.

There is no time to think.

You reflexively turn the steering wheel and cause another accident.

At this time, the person explains that it was unconscious.

But the word 'unconscious' is,

nothing more than a mechanism to make it as if the judgment never happened.

There was certainly a judgment there.

However, it was not a deliberated judgment, but rather,

a high-speed judgment compressed to the limit.

What was seen.

What was not seen.

The object to which consciousness was directed.

The possibilities that were discarded.

All of these were part of the judgment.

Therefore, responsibility arises immediately after the act.

It is natural for the law to attribute it to the individual,

as long as the subject of the judgment is the individual.

Then, how long does that responsibility last?

Is it when the response to the result is finished?

Is it when the legal obligation is fulfilled?

Is it when the social sanction is completed?

I do not think so.

Responsibility does not conclude externally.

It continues to remain as a state within the subject who judged.

If regret arises,

how one handles that regret is also a judgment.

You can run away from regret.

You can change the meaning you assign to things.

You can also pack it away in a box as a memory.

However, no matter which choice you make,

the responsibility itself never disappears.

Judgment is,

the very stance of continuing to accept responsibility.

That is why I do not waver.

To waver is to be in a state where the location of responsibility is uncertain.

Unless the resolve to accept it is fixed,

judgment cannot be established.

Judgment is not determined by correctness.

It is not something that is corrected by success or failure.

Judgment,

including its irreversible consequences,

is established when you decide that you will continue to accept it regardless.

Only when standing at this point,

does the next question arise.

――Where does ethics exist?