Lady Justice statue - Origin & Symbolism

Origins of the Lady Justice Statue

Some of the first images similar to the Lady of Justice date back to the Egyptian goddess Maat, who signified truth and order in that ancient society. Later, the ancient Greeks worshipped the goddess Themis, the personification of divine law and custom, and her daughter, Dike, whose name means “justice.” Dike was always depicted carrying a pair of balance scales, and it was believed that she ruled over human law.

The ancient Romans revered Justitia or lustitia, who most closely resembles the Lady of Justice statues formed in more modern times. She represented the morality of the justice system.

The Symbols of Justice

Balance Scales: These represent impartiality and the obligation of the law (through its representatives) to weigh the evidence presented to the court. Each side of a legal case needs to be looked at and comparisons made as justice is done.

Sword: This item symbolizes enforcement and respect, and means that justice stands by its decision and ruling, and is able to take action. The fact that the sword is unsheathed and very visible is a sign that justice is transparent and is not an implement of fear. A double-edged blade signifies that justice can rule against either of the parties once the evidence has been perused, and it is bound to enforce the ruling as well as protect or defend the innocent party.

Blindfold: This first appeared on a Lady Justice statue in the 16th century, and has been used intermittently since then. Apparently its original significance was that the judicial system was tolerating abuse or ignorance of aspects of the law. However, in modern times, the blindfold represents the impartiality and objectivity of the law and that it doesn’t let outside factors, such as politics, wealth or fame, influence its decisions.

WEIRD Problem in data collection

Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, And Democratic

The wounds of Honour are self inflicted

Path dependence

Path dependence is the idea that decisions we are faced with depend on past knowledge trajectory and decisions made, and are thus limited by the current competence base.

In other words, history matters for current decision-making situations and has a strong influence on strategic planning. Competences that have been built in the past define the option range for today’s moves. New business opportunities, in particular those based on technological progress, emerge gradually as a consequence of competencies acquired prior to new discoveries and over time.

Example

A well-known example is the QWERTY layout for typewriters. Despite the fact that different keyboard layouts in modern computer keyboards would allow faster typing, the QWERTY layout prevails. Due to the network effect (network externalities) the layout seems immutable.[1]

network effect

A network effect (also known as a network externality) exists when a product’s value to the user increases as the number of users of the product grows. The classic example is the telephone. The more people own telephones, the more valuable the telephone network is to each owner. If there are N owners, each one of them can call the other N - 1 owners: a total of N(N-1) communications can be made. Thus the network’s value grows with the number of possible connections, in the order of N squared. This insight is the basis of Metcalfe’s law that states that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of members within the network.

When you buy a DVD player and some DVDs, you encourage an industry, and thus more DVDs are put on the market. In fact, the concept can easily extend: perhaps the most dominant network effect is language. If you write a web page in Inuktitut, not many people can read it. If your only audience is that community, that is fine. But if you want to get attention, you will probably write it in English: scientific journals, for example, are now overwhelmingly in English, especially because the internet amplifies network effects.

Network effects have fundamental importance for business strategy, intellectual property, and technical change in a wide range of industries. For instance, it becomes very important to establish early on in a market. [1]

Example

Amazon lost money for years establishing itself as the main source for online books, in direct competition to Barnes & Noble and eventually driving Borders out of the market.

Over time, positive network effects made the network more valuable and the business more succesful.

Haptic communication

Haptics where you touch a person to add to the emotion of whatever you are saying. A hand over a shoulder, a handshake etc.

Haptic communication refers to the ways in which people and other animals communicate and interact via the sense of touch. As well as providing information about surfaces and textures, touch, or the haptic sense, is a component of communication in interpersonal relationships that is nonverbal and nonvisual. Touch is extremely important for humans and is vital in conveying physical intimacy. Haptics is a branch of nonverbal communication.

Proxemics

Proxemics which is personal space that people have and which varies by culture. See the queue at the bustops in Britain and you will know what I mean. They are all at least a metre from each other while waiting in a queue.  Some  cultures for example have a much smaller personal space.