III.

THE DESIRE FOR HAPPINESS AND THE MORAL LIFE

Theme 8. The moral conscience

• As we have been seeing, universal moral knowledge is a form of wisdom that

moves us to evaluate specific situations in which good and evil are at stake.

⇒ Moral Law indicates a body of truths that should be followed in our human
acts.

⇒ However, our human acts are always single and specific. There is a great
distance between the universal moral law and specific human acts.

⇒ In order to discover the morality of these acts the person must apply the law
to each of the acts, keeping in mind the particular circumstances.

⇒ The conscience exists at this level, as the mediator between the general law
and a specific action.

• We all have the experience that we always evaluate our actions in order to
ascertain whether they are right or wrong; this is part of the mechanism
involved when a human being takes a decision

⇒ This judgment or evaluation is carried about by the individual person himself,

starting off from the objective moral law as he knows it.

⇒ No one else can make this judgment for the person, it is up to he himself.

⇒ The judgment involves comparing the act with the moral law and one’s final
goal.

⇒ This judgment is the moral conscience itself.

• In this moral experience, the person realizes whether the act is good, and
should be done, or otherwise. The act itself is seen to be worthy or not.

⇒ “Each person has the experience that he himself is something good, but not in
a definitive way, rather, that he is a good which is still in project form. The
human being lives not with the satisfaction of what he already is, but rather in
the hope of that which he ought to become, in tension towards a plenitude that
he still does not possess. The ethical dimension that characterizes all the
human being’s acts shows that his life is a path towards his own fulfillment as
a person. The conscience is precisely the light that orients and guides him

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 along this path, warning him of which acts help him to achieve his dignity
and which acts destroy it”1.

• The faculty through which we come to know the morality of our actions is the
intellect. However, the conscience is an act of the intellect whereby we judge
specific acts as good or bad according to whether they correspond to our final
goal or not.

⇒ “The moral conscience is the first act in which knowledge of the requirements
of the virtues and norms becomes personalized, is applied to one’s own
situation and is seen as measuring our behaviour”2.

• This judgment of our conscience is the proximate and immediate norm that
guides our actions because no law can be a rule for our conduct except when a
person applies it to himself in his activity.

⇒ The conscience always only indicates the morality of specific acts.

⇒ This judgment, be it right or wrong, depends on the universal moral

knowledge that the person has acquired about the moral value of any act.

⇒ Hence, the conscience is the immediate reference point that a person can find
for his conduct.

⇒ However, the conscience should be true, that is, it should conform to the truth
about man and his dignity.

⇒ “That which is explicitly known in the moral action is precisely the act that
will be done and its positive or negative call to human freedom, which
requires its acceptance or rejection. For this reason it is said that any truly and
specifically moral knowledge is a form of practical knowledge, that is,
knowledge that accompanies and guides the action and that directs the person
towards the correct use of human freedom”3.

• Now we shall discuss the relationship between conscience, the first principles,
moral knowledge, and the virtue of prudence.

Particular moral knowledge

• We have a number of concepts in hand now:

⇒ Synderesis: first moral principles e.g. “do good and avoid evil”.

1
RUIZ RETEGUI, A., Pulchrum: reflexiones sobre la belleza desde la antropologia cristiana, Rialp, Madrid
1998, p. 17.
2
RODRIGUEZ LUNO, A., Etica general, Eunsa, Pamplona 1987, p. 25.
3
RUIZ RETEGUI, A., ‘La ciencia y la fundamentacion de la etica’, en VV.AA.: Deontologia biologica,
Facultad de Ciencias de la Universidad de Navarra, 1987, p. 25.

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 ⇒ Moral knowledge (moral science): the knowledge of the moral value of more
specific acts, based on the first moral principles e.g.: it is wrong to lie.

⇒ The virtue of prudence: apply the first moral principles and moral knowledge
to particular cases.

• The moral conscience is a specific judgment about a particular act, that is

emitted based on the person’s universal moral knowledge (their synderesis and
other acquired moral knowledge).

⇒ The conscience is not an arbitrary judgment about good and bad; rather, it is
based on the person’s knowledge of the objective moral law.

⇒ The person discovers the universal moral law and takes it as a guide for
judging the goodness or badness of his specific actions.

⇒ It is natural that the conscience should be a judgment based on knowledge of

the first principles because the human being naturally seeks to know the truth,
due to the habit of synderesis.

⇒ These first principles are a guide to the whole process in which the person
acquires moral knowledge and applies it to specific cases.

⇒ So the conscience only accepts as guidance for judgment, those ideas that it
understands to be true according to the first moral principles.

⇒ At the same time, the light of the first principles becomes more explicit and is
complemented by acquired moral knowledge (knowledge about which acts
are truly good for man and his behaviour).

⇒ Once the person knows what is good and desires what is good, he has to think
out the specific requirements that the good brings along with it.

⇒ “Based on experience, the example of others, reading and study, the

orientations of parents and teachers, etc., we acquire the habit of moral
science or knowledge of the main truths about what is good for man and his
conduct. It is a form of speculative knowledge in the sense that, even though
it helps us to know good and evil, it does not include in itself the necessary
energy (stimulus) to apply this knowledge to one’s own life; this, rather, is the
fruit of our moral dispositions” 4.

• Based on the habit of synderesis (knowledge of the first moral principles), the
conscience carries out the act of practical judgment. These two elements
combine to form the moral judgment on whether or not to do the act.

4
PALMA BUFILL, J., Manual de... Op. cit., p. 160.

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 ⇒ However, in order to move from the speculative, theoretical knowledge about
good and evil to the practical knowledge of the moral value of a particular
act, we need the virtue of prudence.

• Prudence is the virtue (habit) that applies the general principles of synderesis,
and moral knowledge to the particular act, in order to ascertain the moral value
of the act.

⇒ Prudence involves having the necessary theoretical moral knowledge and the
capacity to apply it to the particular act; evaluate the moral value of a
particular act.

⇒ Once the person, through prudence, has discovered the moral value of the
specific act, the act of judgment about whether to do the act or not may be
carried out by the conscience.

• Various elements intervene in gaining knowledge of the moral value of

particular acts:

⇒ Firstly, synderesis and the natural law supply the general principles:

o Synderesis: ”we must do good and avoid evil”.

o Natural Law: “theft is evil”.

⇒ Moral knowledge applies the general principle to a particular type of act:

o Moral knowledge: “theft should be avoided”.

⇒ Prudence considers the moral value of a specific act:

o “this is an act of theft”.

⇒ Conscience makes its judgment:

o “I ought to avoid this act”.

• During this whole process, it is possible for error to enter at one stage or
another. The first principles cannot be mistaken, but error can come in at the
level or moral knowledge, at the prudential level and finally, in the judgment
of the conscience itself.

⇒ We need to see, therefore, different characteristics that the conscience may

adopt in order to be able to distinguish them and decide whether or not to
follow the judgment made by the conscience.

Types of conscience

• We need to distinguish between conscience and consciousness.

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 ⇒ Conscience is a judgment on the morality of particular acts.

⇒ Consciousness is the intimate knowledge the person has of himself and his
acts; he is aware of himself and what he does.

• In terms of how conscience relates to the timing of an act:

⇒ Antecedent: when one makes a moral judgment before carrying out a free act,
in order to command, permit, advise, or prohibit the act.

⇒ Consequent: when a moral judgment is made about an act after it is done in

order to approve of it and enjoy satisfaction, or to condemn the act and
experience sorrow or remorse.

• In terms of how the judgment of conscience conforms to the moral law:

⇒ True or right: when the goodness or badness has been judged in a way that
conforms to and respects the moral law.

⇒ Erroneous or false: when the moral judgment made by the conscience does
not agree with the moral law because it considers a bad act to be good or vice
versa. The cause of this error will be some form of ignorance.

• In terms of the type of consent that the person gives to the judgment made by
the conscience:

⇒ Sure or certain: the conscience judges firmly that an act is good or bad,
without fear of erring.

⇒ Probable: the person does not have complete certainty about the morality of
the act; the conscience indicates that probably, one of the possibilities is true
(for example, it’s more probable that the act be good than false).

⇒ Doubtful: fear of making a mistake moves the conscience to suspend its

judgment on the goodness or badness of an act.

Principles for following one’s conscience

• In principle, one’s conscience is a moral reference point that should be

respected and followed in free acts because it expresses the person’s
understanding of the moral law and how it applies to a particular act.

⇒ However, as our conscience is not always in a certain state regarding the

morality of our acts, we need some guidelines in order to know when we
ought to follow our conscience and when this is not necessary.

• Only the sure or certain conscience is a rule of morality that must be followed.
If a person acts against his conscience, he does evil because he is contradicting

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 or opposing what he knows to be right and true. He is thus acting against
himself and his deepest personal convictions.

⇒ We should never act against our conscience. If a person in conscience knows

that something is evil, even though it may actually be good in itself, and he
acts against that knowledge (doing instead of avoiding what he understood to
be evil), he is acting badly.

• In order to be a rule of morality, as well as being certain, the conscience must

be true or invincibly erroneous. As the moral norm is the natural law, only the
conscience that applies the law correctly to a given act is a legitimate rule for
morality.

⇒ As man can make mistakes, at times, in spite of his diligence, he can consider
to be right something that is actually wrong, or vice versa. The person also
must follow this decision of a blameless but erroneous conscience because he
has, in good faith, been mistaken.

• The conscience that judges erroneously, while being able to overcome that
error, is not a legitimate rule of morality. Before acting one way or another,
for or against the moral judgment, the person needs to remove the error.

⇒ If I mistakenly think that it is wrong to give material help to the destitute, I

cannot then give things to poor people, because according to my conscience, I
would be acting badly (doing what I consider to be wrong).

⇒ However, if I follow what my conscience tells me, that it is wrong to help the
destitute, and so I do not help the poor, I will also actually be acting badly.

⇒ Hence, what I really need to do is to clarify my mistaken idea, discover that it

is good to help the destitute, and work from there, carrying out my acts on the
basis of this rectified judgment.

• It is illicit to act with a doubtful conscience because one can possibly act
badly. Hence, the doubt must be removed before acting.

⇒ If a person is not sure that the use of contraceptives is evil, he cannot, in

conscience, use them, otherwise he is exposing himself to acting badly.

⇒ The doubt must be clarified so that the person forms a true idea about
contraceptives and freely decide not to use them.

The formation of moral conscience

• “Man is a being that needs the help of others to become what he really is”5.
This author explains his affirmation using the example of how we learn to
speak: “We naturally say that we learned to do so from our parents. The

5
SPAEMANN, R., Etica: cuestiones fundamentales, Eunsa, Pamplona 1987, p. 91.

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 person who has never heard anyone speak remains dumb and if he does not
communicate in any way, then, he will not even manage to think”6.

• In a similar way, the human person develops the sense of what is right and
what is wrong from the knowledge and formation that he receives from other
people.

⇒ This explains the fact that we need to form our conscience and that the task
begins very early on in life, from infancy, when we begin to interact with
other people in a more personal and conscious way.

• Every human being has the seed of conscience in them; this is their basic sense
of right and wrong. This may be seen easily in the case of small children.

⇒ They have a sharp sense of justice that makes them rebel when they see it
damaged.

⇒ They are able to sense when a person is authentic and when they are false;
they have sensitivity towards goodness and sincerity.

⇒ However, this sense of right and wrong in children can easily be destroyed if
they do not see these values (goodness, sincerity, justice, etc) made real in the
lives of people who are in authority.

⇒ For children, the spoken word is a vehicle that transmits transparency and
truth. If, due to fear of punishment, they learn to lie or they discover that
their parents do not tell them the truth and that they lie habitually in everyday
life, then the sensitivity of the child’s conscience becomes dulled and it
becomes deformed 7.

• In order to avoid this dulling or desensitization of the conscience in the

developing human being, it is very important for each person to acquire moral
knowledge as they grow.

⇒ This basic knowledge of what is right and what is wrong is the necessary
basis for the human conscience to work, precisely because its task is not to
judge the moral law in itself, but to apply it in particular cases.

⇒ In order for the conscience to apply the universal moral law in particular acts,
it needs to know the law explicitly.

⇒ If a person does not have this knowledge, neither will they be able to act
using their conscience.

⇒ Hence, it becomes clear that the person has the obligation to form their
conscience, acquire true moral knowledge, so as to be able to apply it in the
judgments of conscience, and hence act in a truly human way.
6
Ibidem, p. 91.
7
Cf. Ibidem, p. 92.

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• The task of educating our conscience is on-going in our lives and is connected
to our growing knowledge of the truth; if the intellect can get to know the truth
more and more, and better and better, then the moral judgments that a person
makes can become ever more right, better, truer.

⇒ It is important that our knowledge of the truth grow and develop so that our
moral judgments can become truer and more certainly correct, as this
corresponds to our dignity and capacity as human beings.

⇒ Just as the human eye needs light to be able to work (to see), so the human
conscience needs the truth in order to be able to know and judge correctly the
moral value of the acts of the person.

⇒ So we see that love for the truth, the desire to know the real truth, is an
important starting point for the development and activity of the human
conscience, and so, for determining the morality of our free acts.

⇒ Formation of our conscience in the truth, then, requires effort; it’s not enough
to have a vague “good will” when judging our actions. Nor is it sufficient to
simply want to be “authentic” in order to achieve moral uprightness.

⇒ We need to make an effort to acquire the necessary moral knowledge in order

to be able to apply these ethical principles to our acts.

• As human beings, we all have the challenge of constantly forming our

conscience, helping it t conform ever more to what is true and good. We need
to do specific things in order to form our conscience (we cannot just leave it to
common sense or good will).

⇒ Study. Read. Learn from the experience of others.

⇒ The moral knowledge we need will depend a lot on our personal

circumstances, our personal capacity, the type of work and other
responsibilities that we have, the environment in which we live, etc. The
important thing is that we acquire an adequate moral knowledge for the
formation of our conscience in the truth.

⇒ Seeking advice can be useful, so as to know the opinion of people who have
more experience than ourselves, or who have studied things more; if we ask
for advice, our own personal responsibility is not reduced when we make our
judgment of conscience on an issue. Nobody can substitute us in our moral
judgments and in our free decisions; the moral responsibility always belongs
to the person who acts.

• As we have seen, moral knowledge guides and accompanies our judgments,

our free decisions and our actions as it orients us in how to use our freedom
well.

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 ⇒ However, the goodness of an action does not depend only on the fact that it
respects certain universal moral norms. There are other elements that also
influence the moral value of the acts, such as the circumstances of the person
who acts, etc.

• In this section of the programme we have analyzed the human person’s desire
for happiness and how this is made specific in his acts with the help of moral
knowledge and conscience.

⇒ Now we need to study the other ethical criteria for evaluating the morality of
our free acts, and hence, how these acts affect the whole person who acts.

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