Hi,
I would like to share my views on what I think is involved in making a fair judgment about a person or situation.
First of all, the person making the judgement must not have prejudices against any party and must not even have a preference on one side over the other even before the matter happened. This is very essential because prejudices and preferences will greatly affect the outcome of the decision. For example, in To Kill a Mockingbird, event though the jury of Tom Robinson's court case were presented with a lot of substantial evidence to prove that Tom Robinson was not guilty of rape, the jury were still influenced by their prejudices against African-Americans and sentenced Tom Robinson guilty of rape.
Secondly, I think that the person must be upright and not corrupt. The judge needs to have a clear distinction between what is right and wrong before being able to come up with a fair judgement. The judge must also be strong enough to resist the temptations of bribes from either party if it is a court case.
Next, the person making the judgement must take time to understand the whole matter so that his judgement will be fair. If one does not know the facts of a person/situation and jumps to conclusions, his judgement will be very inaccurate and unfair. Therefore, it is very crucial for a person to be patient and understanding in order to make a fair judgement of a person/situation.
Finally, a fair judge needs to be someone wise. The judge needs to be able to interpret some facts or data and come up with a relevant and accurate inference or statement about the person/situation. Wisdom will aid the judge in making a fair judgement and even help him to come up with a solution to help the person or situation.
A fair judgement is very rare, as people are too lazy to bother about the steps to take to make one. However, I believe that an unfair judgement can result in unwanted consequences and can hurt one party very badly. Therefore, I think that we should try not to judge anyone or anything if we know that we are not good judges. I suggest that should a judgement really be needed, that one should ask a few other trustworthy friends for their opinion.
In conclusion, there are many factors and characteristics of a person that can influence his judgement. However, I believe that the objectiveness, wisdom, trustiness and patience of a person will help him to come up with a fair and good judgement of a person/situation.
Nathanael
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Hi Nathanael,
ReplyDeleteI have read your blog post on making fair judgements and I felt that it was rather well-written and insightful. However, I need to comment on some of the points you've written.
First, I strongly agree that a person must not be prejudicial or preferential, as their judgements may unknowingly lean towards one party. Also, they can be influenced easily by peer pressure or outward influences, such as bribery. Imagine what would happen to a court case if each jury members follows each other, in what I would call a "pack mentality".
Next, I'm not sure if this is relevant, but I think it's also possible that a person's mood and attitude may also affect his judgement. Take for example, someone who is angry would more likely make an assumption about someone else before considering the facts, when compared to someone who is calm and has time to think.
Finally, I think that when we need a judgement, not only should we ask our friends, we must be able to distinguish their fair judgements from impartial ones. We can also consult other reliable sources, or our elders.
All in all, you've covered most of the points that affects someone's judgement! Good job!
Keven Loo
I agree with Keven. A person's mood can affect his judgement. A person's experiences will also affect his judgement. A high court judge who has had a child that was kidnapped might find it hard to be partial towards a man accused of kidnapping.
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