Conscience in Moral Life

Rethinking How Our Convictions Structure Self and Society

Jason J. Howard

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9798216334064
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Ethics & Moral Philosophy

The notion of conscience remains one of the most widely used moral concepts and a cornerstone of ordinary moral thinking. This book explores where this widespread confidence in conscience stems from, examining the history of conscience as a moral concept and its characteristic moral phenomenology.
Jason Howard provides a comprehensive reassessment of the function of conscience in moral life, detailing along the way the manifold problems that arise when we believe our conscience is more reliable than is actually warranted.

The result is a step-by-step evaluation of our most accepted assumptions. Howard goes on to argue, from a phenomenological perspective, that conscience is indispensable for understanding moral experience. He capitalizes on a dialectical perspective developed by Hegel and Ricoeur, in which conscience is seen as the recognition of the other, and integrates this with work in the philosophy of emotion, arguing that conscience is best seen in terms of the function it serves in moderating the moral emotions of shame, guilt and pride.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter One: A Quick History of Conscience and the Rise of the Faculty View
• Chapter Two: Problems with the Faculty View of Conscience
• Chapter Three: Moral Emotions and the Connection to Conscience
• Chapter Four: Conscience and Our Convictions
• Chapter Five: Conscience as a Legal Right and Its Reification in the Law
• Chapter Six: Living with Our Convictions
• Works Cited
• Index
• About the Author