Definition of

Justification

Explanation

A justification can consist of the explanation of a certain action or behavior.

It is in Latin that we find the etymological origin of the term justification that concerns us now. It comes from the word “iustificatio”, which can be translated as “action and effect of doing something just” and is made up of the following parts:

• The word “iustus”, which is synonymous with “just”.

• The verb “facere”, which is equivalent to “do”.

• The suffix “-cion”, which is used to indicate “action and effect”.

Justification is a notion that allows us to refer to the process and result of justifying . This verb , for its part, is linked to demonstrating something with evidence ; to explain an action or behavior based on certain reasons; or to prove that a person is innocent of what is attributed to him.

What is a justification

A justification, therefore, can be an argument , a motivation or a principle that serves to justify something. For example: “I don't need a justification to give you a kiss” , “I would like to know what your justification is for behaving this way” , “Ramiro is furious: he believes that Laura cannot provide any justification to explain her action” .

For the presence of a justification to become necessary, an action must be misunderstood or repudiated by one of the people who notices or receives it. It is a phenomenon as relative as much of the feelings and sensations of living beings, since the same fact can be acceptable in one society and alarming in another, and there may even be exceptions within each one.

Justification, on the other hand, can be about that which proves the good intentions or innocence of a subject or an action : “This newly built asylum is the justification of all the effort” , “The man admitted to having hit his neighbor” . , but their justification is that it was self-defense."

Adjusting the unfair

It can be said that justification consists of adapting something that is unfair (in the sense that it does not conform to current regulations or precepts) and making it fair , either according to morality or the law , or even through a demonstration.

A person can provide a justification for his or her actions and explain his or her behavior in light of a context. In this case, we speak of an active justification. Another possibility is that it is an authority who is in charge of indicating the justification of other people's actions.

In this sense, a document that a medical professional must write to certify the absence of a patient from their place of work or study is known as a medical justification . It is a justification with a scientific basis and endorsed by a qualified person who offers his name and experience as a guarantee, so it is normal that its validity is not questioned, although it is known that in many cases it does not have it, but that the justification is extended as a favor to a friend or acquaintance.

The justification in the field of education

Within the educational field, given that certain assessment methods ask students to simply indicate whether a statement is true or false, or to choose the correct phrase from a series of options, it is normal that a justification is necessary, a brief explanation that prove that the choice was not random.

Furthermore, in educational centers, in order to reduce school absenteeism to a minimum, it is common that when students miss class they are asked to present the corresponding justification. This may be a medical document proving that they have attended a consultation or that they are sick, or a note made and signed by their parents or legal guardian specifying the reason for the young person's absence.

Write

When writing text on a computer, you can choose justification as an alignment type.

Theory in philosophy

It is also important to establish that within the field of philosophy and science there is talk of what is called the theory of justification. This is a term used to refer to the part of the theory of knowledge that is dedicated to studying the techniques or methods that people use when trying to prove any statement or proposition.

Within it, it is established that there are three types of justifications or rather sources that serve as such. Specifically, it is about reasoning itself, intuition and experiences.

Justification as a type of alignment

Justification, finally, can be a type of alignment that is applied to the lines of a text to ensure that each end coincides with the beginning of the corresponding margin, spacing the words as much as necessary. A justified block of text looks similar to a square because it leaves no white space between the margins and the words.

It is worth mentioning that there is also vertical justification of texts, for which upper and lower composition margins are used, although this is not widely used. Unlike horizontal justification, which expands the lines of the text by adding spaces between the words, vertical justification uses the regulation of line spacing, that is, the space between its lines.