CONSCIENCE:

SUBJECTIVE NORM OF
MORALITY
 THE CONCEPT OF CONSCIENCE
Conscience is often describe as an “inner voice” which
tells us what is right and wrong.
Vatican II, in its “ Pastoral Constitution on the Church in
the Modern World”, depicts conscience as the principle or
sense that summons us to love good and avoid evil. It is the
most secret core and sanctuary of an individual - where we
can be alone with God whose voice becomes the master of
our acts. Conscience reveals the law which is fulfilled by our
love of God and our neighborhood.
 Richard McBrien defines conscience not only as a
feeling or judgement but also as the radical experience
of ourselves as moral agents – that Christian
conscience is the representation of ourselves as new
creatures in Christ enlivened by the Holy Spirit.
 Conscience must properly formed because it is the
final, subjective norm of moral action by which
individual is guided to come up with a decision. It does
not guarantee correctness of the decision or
judgement; it only allows us to be true to ourselves.
 THE MORAL CONSCIENCE
Moral law as the objective norm of morality
cannot achieve its purpose and guide human activity
toward God’s plan unless the law is known by people
and recognized in its obligatory character. Conscience
is the faculty which manifests this moral obligation in a
concrete situation.
In our hearts, we detect a law written by God. To
obey the dignity of man/ woman. We will be judged
according to how we have followed our conscience.
 CATEGORIES OF CONSCIENCE
There are four categories of conscience:
1. True conscience – when it deduces correctly from
that the act is lawful, or it conforms to what is
objectively right.
2. False or erroneous conscience – when it decides
from false principles considered as true that
something is unlawful. The conscience errs because
of false principles or incorrect reasoning.
a. Scrupulous conscience – one that for little or no
reason judges an act to be morally evil when it is
not, or exaggerates the gravity of sin, or sees sin
where it does not exist.
b. Perplexed conscience – judges wrongly that sin is
committed both in the performance or omission of
an act. One fears that sin is committed whether it
was actually done or not.
c. Lax conscience – judges on insufficient ground that
there is no sin in the fact, or that sin is not grave as
it is in fact, or it is insensitive to a moral obligation
in a particular area.
a. Pharisaical conscience – minimizes grave sins but
maximizes small one.
3. Certain conscience – when without any prudent fear
or error, it decides the act is either lawful or unlawful;
or if the person has no doubt about the correctness of
his/her judgement.
4. Doubtful conscience – when it fails to pass the moral
judgement in the character of the act due to a fear or
error; or if the person is unsure about the correctness
of his/her judgement.
 CONSCIENCE AS SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS
Conscience can be seen as a self-consciousness
in the fullest sense of the term. Through the
conscience, persons become aware of themselves
as subjects relating to other subjects. They praise
God through commitment to achieving Gospel
values and respect the development and needs of
themselves and others.
A person is given life by the Creator as a gift or
talent to be developed. The individual is called into
a dialogue with a personal God who is the Father.
Thus, there are many factors involved in the
“innermost center” of an individual called the
“self”, where he/she senses good apart form evil.
CONSCIENCE AND THE POWER OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT
We have the God-given abilities to become
informed, to reason, to love, to decide, and to commit
ourselves to creating goodness. The spirit respects these
gifts too much to render their exercise unnecessarily by
planting commands in our minds as though we are
robots. Conscience is not merely there to force us to
obey laws and apply them. It is basically an aid in
achieving the proper realization of ourselves.
 We Christians receive a call of Christ. We are aware
that we must follow a certain path in order to incarnate
our faith, hope, and love – the ultimate moment of this
conscience. We form and follow our conscience in an
autonomous manner – and always with the help of grace
under the light of the Gospel. Conscience is formed by
us individuals; it does not fall from heaven.
 BINDING FORCE OF CONSCIENCE
Without any doubt, the free formation and
following of our conscience constitute fundamental
human rights. To harm these rights injures us
gravely, for it attacks the deepest level of self.
A true o certain conscience is the most binding
kind of conscience. A doubtful, erroneous
conscience should not be followed; we are bound
to clear any doubts in our conscience.
 But do we have the unlimited right to follow our
personal conscience in the performance of our external
actions? For instance, can a person who professes to act
in good faith motives to murder, steal, take his/her own
life or harm others?
As Thomas Garrett, S.J. in the book Problems and
Perspective in Ethics, the rights of an individual are
generally not absolute. An appropriate example of this is
the question by the religious denomination called
Jehovah's Witnesses : “Can parents be obliged to allow
blood transfusion for their children even though this is
contrary to our beliefs?
American legal codes do not permit the following of
this kind of personal conscience because it violates the
established rights of other people or causes grave social
harm.
 Christian moral principles also arrive at a similar
conclusion. These principles include the following:
1. A person who follows an erroneous action
without causing injury to others should not be
prevented from acting. For example, should parents
and society not prevent children and adolescents
form taking prohibited drugs? Base on Christian
standards, genuine human self-fulfillment never
involves mutilation or suicide. The prevention of
this act allows the person to gain an opportunity in
the right direction.
2. An individual who follows his/her erroneous
conscience and injures others should be prevented
from performing his/her external deeds. For
instance, an individual does not have the unlimited
right to sell pornographic materials, to steal for a
supposed worthy cause or to perjure oneself in
court.
3. A person may not morally coerce or persuade
another to act against his/her conscience. If an
individual remains convinced of a certain course of
action despite all arguments, he/she should follow
his/her own conviction.
2. An individual who follows his/her erroneous
conscience and injures others should be prevented
from performing his/her external deeds. For
instance, an individual does not have the unlimited
right to sell pornographic materials, to steal for a
supposed worthy cause or to perjure oneself in
court.
3. A person may not morally coerce or persuade
another to act against his/her conscience. If an
individual remains convinced of a certain course of
action despite all arguments, he/she should follow
his/her own conviction.
 FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF
CONSCIENCE
There are certain principles that form or govern
conscience:
1. A person is obliged to form a right with an
unerring conscience.
2. Everyone is obliged to follow his/her conscience.
3. An individual is not permitted to follow erroneous
conscience. Thus, the error must be corrected
before acting upon it.
4. If a person with a perplexed conscience finds it impossible
to ask for an advice, he/she should choose what seems to
be lesser evil. Following these reflex principle is important:
a. In doubt, The condition of the possessor is the better.
b. In doubt, favor the accused; crime is not to be presumed,
but to be proved.
c. In doubt, presumption stands on the side of the superior.
d. In doubt, stand for the validity of the act.
e. In doubt, amplify the favorable and restrict the
unfavorable.
f. In doubt, presumption stands for the usual and the
ordinary.
g. In doubt, favor the customary and hilherto approved.
h. A doubtful law does not oblige.
5. Only the certain conscience is a correct guide to
moral behavior.
Finley and Pennock (1976) states two main
principles of conscience formation:

Principle 1
Conscience is supreme. In moral decisions, we
must follow our conscience even if it is wrong.

Principle 2
Though a person must always follow his/her
conscience, he/she has the duty to develop
continuously an informed conscience.
 FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE
Human beings have the right to freedom of
conscience. Our dignity demands that we should act
according to a knowledgeable yet free choice. In
our moral decisions, we should be fully free, not
driven by coercion but motivated by a sense of
duty. We should not be influenced by a mere blind,
instinctive warning, but by an authentic personal
self-realization and self donation of love.
Some Moral Maxims
•“Right reason is indeed a true law, in accord with nature, diffused
among all men, unchangeable, eternal. By commands it calls men to
their duty, by its prohibitions it deters from vice. There shall no
longer be one law in Rome and another in Athens, nor shall it
prescribe one thing today and another one tomorrow, but one and
the same law, eternal and immutable, shall be prescribed for all
nations and at all times, and the God who shall prescribe, introduce,
and promulgate this law obedience to Him shall be filled with
confusion, as this very act will be a virtual denial of his human
nature; and should he escape a present punishment, he shall
endure heavy chastisement hereafter.” --Cicero
SUMMARY
Moral laws as the objective norms of morality
(together with some moral guides and maxims) and the
conscience as the subjective norm of morality are the
guidepost that will lead us to where we are going. As
Christians, we have to follow the commandment of love –
“to love God and our neighbor as ourselves” (Mk. 12:30-
31). The subjective conscience needs to be informed so
that each person will be able to act and judge according to
the dictates of his/her true and certain conscience.