The Astronomer by Zoran Živković
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On Deciding What’s Important

A rather common, folksy view of ethics is that one should exercise judgment as if looking back from the future on the factual consequences of action (the secular equivalent of What Would Jesus Do among Evangelicals, a group which also loves its folk wisdom). Unfortunately, the imagination required to accomplish this without self-justifying bias is on the order of the miraculous. In addition, it is impossible in a largely random universe to accurately predict consequences; so an even bigger miracle would seem to be required. And finally, even with a miracle, the choice “between satisfying your own conceit and the wise insight that it actually makes no difference” is one of which criterion is to be applied to the facts, not the facts themselves. In truth, it is the criteria of judgment which determines that which constitutes a fact. A concise little story with cosmic significance.

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