On the Incompatibility of Genetic Axioms with Axioms of Justice and Ethics: Requirement of a Third Space for Ethical Deliberation

Free will and individual responsibility are cornerstones of the justice system and widely accepted as axiomatic. In the present work we use predicate calculus to illustrate that there is a clash of assumptions between biological theory and these axioms of justice and ethics. This creates a conflict with the justice system, for from the assumption that self-consciousness and free will determines actions, punishment is legitimised whenever social, moral and legal norms are violated.If we accept that voluntarist and determinist assumptions are mutually exclusive and necessarily generate either separate or incoherent working spaces in current models, the discussion about such models requires a third space for deliberation. A third space for dialogue offers an opportunity to generate fresh approaches, with implications not only for remodelling our current concepts of justice, but also for re-modelling our current approaches to science.