Quote:
"For what is humanity itself, but justice" (Lactantius, Divine Institutions)
Is taking a life, other than in the most extreme circumstances, justice?
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Plato's cave is claustrophobic. That's why so many people try to get out of it.
Interpreting shadows flickering in the fire light is all well and good, except that the flames don't stay the same after we've gone to all the work of telling each other what they mean.
Plato tells us that we can't get out of that cave. If we try to escape all we really do is go deeper into the cave. Much of human philosophy argues that Plato was a silly troglodyte, or that we should just enjoy the fire and toast marshmallows.
Lactantius was anti-cave. Justice was an absolute, and divinely directed. I think Jeremy Bentham would have beaten him up and taken his lunch money.
That's not to say utility is the be all and end all of justice, just that we have to consider the source.
If we consider justice to be human and imperfect I'm all for Lactantius.
Quote:
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Now I do realize that a moral person could make a misjudgment when he is put in an extreme circumstance,
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That's why one of the considerations in self defense is did the person have reasonable fear. Sometimes that's expanded to did the person honestly believe there was danger.
Basically being scared gormless is an excuse for homicide. Or at least extenuating.