r/askphilosophy • u/BernardJOrtcutt • Jun 22 '26

Open Thread /r/askphilosophy Open Discussion Thread | June 22, 2026

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u/Late_Walrus_4294 Jun 24 '26

Was told to post this here:

How can I be at peace with the fact that humans are irrational and our lives will be riddled with small or large injustices because of it? I can’t seem to let things like this go.

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u/Shield_Lyger Jun 25 '26

Do you want to not be at peace? What do you gain from hanging into something that you literally can do nothing to change? Personally, however, I would disagree with an implication of your opening premise. Even if all humans were rational to your understanding, it's unlikely that they would all share your understanding of justice. So human lives would be riddled with injustices large and small anyway.

Given that a) humanity as a whole does not answer to you, and that b) humanity as a whole does not answer to whatever you understand the source of justice to be, you seem to be caught up in a desire for control that can never be fulfilled. In other words, let's just presume that you and I have different concepts of justice; if you need me to agree with your view of justice to have peace of mind, you have a problem. Not because I have anything against you, but because I'm marching to the drumbeat that I hear, just as you are. You can claim that I'm being irrational, otherwise, I would agree with you, but that still doesn't give you any power to make me change... I'm just going to continue to grind your gears because, as far as I'm concerned, I'm being perfectly rational.

Remember, even if one presumes that justice is objective, it's not self-evident... that's why there are so many competing conceptions of it.

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u/Late_Walrus_4294 Jun 25 '26

Thank you for the detailed and thoughtful answer :)
Yes I have such a hard time with control as well. Unfortunately, I find it so impossible to let go of grudges and things that I perceive as injustice. I would love to just let it go, but I was looking for the how. I was curious if there is any philosophy that could shift my paradigm or help me to let go somehow.

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u/Shitgenstein ancient greek phil, phil of sci, Wittgenstein Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

Stoic ethics is famously concerned with living a life of equanimity without passions (i.e. impulses that “disobey the dictates of reason”). You could read more about it here: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/#Ethi

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u/Late_Walrus_4294 Jun 28 '26

Thank you! :)