Law & Society

THE REALITY OF REALITY - WHAT JUDGES AND LAWYERS OUGHT TO KNOW

Plato had wished that for ideal governance, philosophers must become kings or kings must study philosophy. In the present day society though we have done away with kings we cannot do away with judges who are given final say in all matters under the Sun. Judges are supposed to be guided by lawyers. It is therefore necessary that both must get some introduction to philosophy.

It is generally agreed by most physicists and philosophers that there is nothing like absolute truth. Even if it is there, it cannot be found out. Truth is relative to the observer.

THEORY OF PHYSICAL RELATIVITY

Most of us, who have not read the theory of relativity of Albert Einstein, tend to think our observations of physical phenomena are absolutely true to every body. The following analysis will show how foolish we have all been.

Let us assume that Mr. A is travelling by train. The train is running at a speed of 100 feet per second. Mr. A who is travelling in the compartment climbs on the upper most berth and drops a ball from the roof of the train to fall vertically on the floor of the train. It takes, say, one second for the ball to touch the floor and another second to bounce back to the roof. Assuming that the height of the roof from the floor of the train is 10 feet Mr.A observes that the ball has travelled 20 feet (10 feet, down and 10 feet up) in two seconds, in a vertical direction, as shown in figure 1.

Mr.A believes that what he has perceived is Absolute Truth but he is mistaken. He forgets that the train is moving at a speed of 100 feet per second. However, he does not notice it as he is travelling along with the train at the same speed and his relative speed to the train is zero.

The above event, if observed by Mr.B who is standing on the platform in the railway station, gives a totally different result. As shown in the figure 2 below he observes that the ball has travelled in a ’v ‘shaped path and has covered a distance of 220 feet in two seconds, which is derived as follows.

Distance travelled by the ball from roof to floor 10 feet [approximately]
Add distance travelled by the ball along with the 100feet
Train in one-second
Total 110 feet [approx]
Distance travelled by the ball from the floor to the roof 10 feet of the train in one second.
Distance travelled by the ball along with the train in
One second
100feet
/Total 110 feet [approx]
Grand total 110 feet + 110 feet= 220 feet in two seconds.
Figure
100 feet per second

The reader is mistaken if he concludes that the perception of Mr.B is absolute Truth.. The reason is, the train also is travelling along with the earth, which is moving around the sun at the speed of about 18.5 miles per second. Therefore, an observer from a space ship. Mr. c. would perceive that the football has covered a distance of 37 miles and 220 feet in two seconds and the direction of travel is horizontal, because the vertical movement of 10 feet (from the roof to the floor) is negligible compared with the horizontal movement of 37 miles 220 feet in two seconds.

The above analysis demonstrates that different people observe the same physical event in different ways and all are correct though their perceptions do not agree with one another.

Psychological relativity

What applies to physics also applies to psychology. So long as we are awake we believe that what ever we see or hear or smell or touch or taste is real. Once we fall a sleep and start dreaming we believe that out perceptions in that state also are real, so long as the dream lasts. We cannot give any irrefutable reasons to prove that what we perceive in wakeful state are really real and what we see in a state of dream are fantasies. As Bertrand Russell states ‘it is obviously possible what we call a wakeful state may only be an unusual and persistent nightmare. I know that I am not dreaming but I cannot prove that I am not’.

Goudapada, who lived a few centuries before Adi Shankaracharya. also had doubted the reality of things seen in a wakeful state as different from things seen in a state of dream ( courtesy-Encyclopaedia Britannia).

It is true that our perceptions in a wakeful state are more consistent and uniform while our dream-state perceptions are erratic. But, who told us that consistency is an essential part of reality. There is the tale of the Brahmin who abandoned his cow in a forest because three cheats falsely but consistently represented to him that he was carrying a goat, which he was not supposed to touch.

It is also true that in wakeful state, we employ our senses to perceive but why should we suppose that only sense perceptions are real? We cannot see infrared rays nor can we hear radio or ultrasonic waves directly. Does it mean that such things do not exist? Similarly, can a totally deaf man conclude that sound is unreal and a blind man presume that light is a fiction? As Russell remarked, it is naпve realism that leads to physics.

CONSCIENCE- HOW IT VARIES FROM PERSON TO PERSON

Most of us think that dictates of our conscience must be true. But, if you ask prophet Mohammed to spell out the most conscionable rate of interest on a loan he would have said that it is zero percent. That is why Islam prohibits charging any interest. A Shylock might say that even cent percent interest is reasonable, as he is after all taking great risk in entrusting the principal amount to the loanee. If you ask a saint like Purandaradasa or Thyagaraja about the ownership of a piece of land as per his `dharma` he would say, “All land belongs to god”. If you ask a communist, he would say that all land belongs to the community and if you enquire Alexander the Great he would have replied that the entire world ought to belong to him. It would be impossible to decide any land dispute with such variations in equity or `dharma` or `nyaya`. Unless there is a clear decision ensuring certainty of ownership, and assured possession, no one will venture to cultivate the land and if all land goes uncultivated, everyone will starve. [ The communistic principle of collective farming failed in the erstwhile Soviet Union. Even China amended the Constitution recently to recognise private ownership. ]

Equity changes with the foot of the chancellor. In the absence of a standard measuring tape, a tall man may measure the distance of a piece of land with his feet and say that it is a hundred feet. A short man may report that it is two hundred feet as the length of his stride is smaller. The same tall man, if he is in a hurry to catch a train, may take long strides and say that the distance is only fifty feet and when jay walking he may find that it is 125 feet.

Since equity cannot be relied upon to judge the affairs of the people, law is adopted as a standard measuring tape. S.3 of the Evidence Act arbitrarily presumes that only perceptions through senses are true. Under the Land Encroachment Act, we start with the legal presumption that all land belongs to state government. Individuals who encroach upon land for thirty years prescribe their right by adverse possession. A private citizen has to encroach upon such land for twelve years to perfect title by adverse possession. One can get an easement right by enjoyment for twenty years. Though there is no mystical sanctity to the number of years prescribed by law, and they are stipulated only arbitrarily, the lawyers and judges should not ignore the law and invoke their own equities to judge the affairs of fellow mortals. “ Conscience per se is an anarchic force, upon which no system of government can be built…clearly conscience does not always declare the will of God, for if it did such diversities would be impossible”---Bertrand Russell.

Though physical phenomena are observed differently from different points of view as seen in the earlier example of the railway compartment, if all observers see the football from the railway compartment all will get the same reading.

The above analysis may help in producing type `A` lawyers and type `A` judges who alone can evolve a predictable and consistent legal system and play powerful role as social engineers and social power houses respectively, in tackling problems of the society.