Jeff began his presentation by asking, “So what is justice?”  He offered the image of Lady Justice, provoking such questions as “Is justice really blind?”  This was followed by the proposition that despite its good intentions, it is a lofty ideal that may not necessarily play out in practice and that there are a lot of should’s that are not matched by are’s.  How can a person or a nation be sure that he/it is acting “justly”?

Jeff cited Descartes’ notion that the goal of justice is to get to a point of fairness, and offered some examples of ways in which this privileged position is achieved, including claims of access to authority (such as God) and universal absolute truths and principles (such as freedom, tolerance, and respect).  He continued that, as a superpower backed by rationality and practical success, America has assumed itself to be in the privileged position.  And so has Western Psychology.

However, Jeff argues, despite its allegedly successful use of the scientific method, it still has its biases.  Cultural and language constraints keep the field from a purely objective standpoint, which makes it therefore impossible to claim an unconditionally just position.  Simply, “the fish can’t jump out to study the water.”

As a solution to this dilemma, Jeff proposes that we (Psychology, America, humanity in general) suppose a relational stance.  This is based on two main facets.  First, we are social beings.  We may attempt to guise our relationships with ideas, but as M. Buber acknowledged, our sense of self depends on a sense of other, and the decisions made by any given individual have an effect on everyone else to some degree or another.  Second, E. Levinas’ notion of face was adduced.  We are called to respond to them, he says, from our families to the beggar on the street.  While we may wish to ignore them, it is impossible for us to hide and pretend that we are not seen.

To conclude, Jeff showed an excerpt from the film Magnolia to demonstrate that, as people facing other people, we cannot hide behind a guise of ideas and blame others to excuse and justify our own biases.