Justice and Commensuration

As the contrast with Karma illustrates, Retributive Justice is an attempt to superimpose commensuration on heterogeneity, i. e. on the discontinuity between what one does and what one undergoes. So, the primary challenge to the attempt is the determination of a standard of measure, which is sometimes more readily available in punitive contexts, e. g. an eye, a tooth, a life, etc. then it is in economic ones, insofar as they are constituted by exchanges of different goods. Thus, though, as has been previously discussed, Distributive Justice is a special, more complex, case of Retributive Justice, i. e. involving multiple participants, implementation is actually often easier than in the simpler scenario. For, it typically entails a quantification, e. g. each participant is equally a single member, on the basis of which commensuration can be immediately determined, e. g. each receives an equal share, thereby accomplishing a just retribution to each.