Conscience Reference library
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (19 ed.)
...of a conscience clause and so evades some particular legal requirement. The term was at one time specially applied to those who had a conscientious objection to vaccination, but since the First World War it has come to mean a person who obtains exemption from military service on grounds of conscience. Colloquial names for a conscientious objector are ‘CO’ or (sometimes disparagingly) ‘conchie’ (or ‘conchy’). Clear conscience See under clear . Court of conscience See under court . In all conscience In fairness; in accord with what one’s conscience would...
conscience Quick reference
A Dictionary of the Bible (2 ed.)
...a wrong deed has been initiated. If there is no such reaction (‘conscience’), then either the deed is not wrong, or habit or environment has so corrupted the subject that ‘conscience’ fails to be activated. ‘Because of conscience’ (Rom. 13: 5) means ‘to avoid the pains of conscience’. This conscience could lead to excessive scruples on the one hand, or be so insensitive on the other that weaker Christians are hurt (1 Cor. 10:...
conscience Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (2 ed.)
... . By ‘conscience’ is meant the sense of right and wrong in an individual; described variously by philosophers as a reflection of the voice of God, as a human faculty, as the voice of reason, or as a special moral sense . The most famous modern discussion is in the work of Joseph Butler , who insisted on conscience's claim to ‘authority’ over other sources of motivation. In moral epistemology Butler combined the rationalist and moral sense theories of the eighteenth century, describing conscience as ‘a sentiment of the understanding or a perception...
conscience Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine (3 ed.)
... A person's sense of right and wrong, which constrains behaviour and causes feelings of guilt if its demands are not met. These moral strictures are believed to be learnt through socialization. It is generally agreed that sport can play an important part in the development of a conscience...
conscience Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (3 ed.)
... The consciousness humans have that an action is morally required or forbidden. In the Christian tradition the nature of this awareness and its status as knowledge is a central problem. On the one hand it is sinful to act against one’s conscience; on the other hand conscience can deceive, since we can be mistaken about what is required or forbidden. Aquinas puts the problem thus: ‘if obeying and disobeying a mistaken conscience are both bad, it seems that men with mistaken consciences are caught in a trap, and cannot avoid sin’ ( Summa Theologiae ,...
conscience Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 rev. ed.)
...and 175 f.; cf. also id., Conscience and Christ (1916). K. E. Kirk , Conscience and its Problems (1927). E. D'Arcy , Conscience and its Right to Freedom (1961); P. Delhaye , La Conscience morale du chrétien [1964]; O. [M. T.] O'Donovan , Resurrection and Moral Order (Leicester and Grand Rapids, 1986), esp. 114–20 and 190–97; R. Hodge , CSCO, What's conscience for? Personal responsibility in relation to conscience and authority (Slough [1995]); I. Shapiro and R. Adams (eds.), Integrity and Conscience (Nomos, 40 [1998]). On the classical...
Conscience Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
...Clement of Rome conscience becomes more authoritarian, emphasizing faithful obedience to the authority of the church. The Philonic or Pauline notion is evident in John Chrysostom , for whom conscience is the highest authority next to the command of God, an understanding that unites him with John of Damascus , for whom the law of God is embedded in human conscience, called the law of the mind ( Exp. fidei 95.8–10, ed. Kotter , Schriften 2:222). It is the impulse, the tension that maintains the life of ascetic spirituality, for the conscience demands...
conscience Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 ed.)
...on the reality and authority of conscience. Some have tended to discard the concept and speak only of moral judgement; others (e.g. Bp. J. Butler ) have seen in conscience a kind of moral sense in the exercise of which people became aware of a Being higher than themselves. According to I. Kant conscience is the awareness of the universal claim of the moral dictates of reason (the Categorical Imperative ). Religion is the recognition of this claim as the will of God, and it is by following the dictates of conscience that individuals realize their...
Conscience Reference library
Joshua Kalapati
The Oxford Encyclopaedia of South Asian Christianity
...This is a powerful argument in a context wherein people have no access to the Word of God. Is conscience inborn? Does it develop and grow with education? Is it subject to change? Does the cultural milieu form and shape it? Does a person with a pure conscience naturally attain salvation? Does our conscience survive the death of the body, so that it carries all the experiences with it? Is it the same as the soul? These are questions that have no easy answers. Conscience is such a broad and hazy subject that anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists,...
conscience n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Psychology (4 ed.)
... n. A moral sense of what is right and wrong, generally accompanied by corresponding regulation of thought and behaviour. More specifically, a feeling of remorse or regret following an unethical action ( I have a guilty conscience about not repaying the loan ). See also Knobe effect , superego , trolley problem . [From Latin conscientia knowledge, from conscire to know well, from con- wholly + scire to know + entia indicating a state, condition, or...
conscience Reference library
Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
... God that supervenes in our intellect exercises there an attraction towards God and pricks our conscience. It is what is meant by the conscience that is in our intellect” ( De fide orthodoxa , c. 95, n° 2; ed. Buytaert, 1955 , 359). The word “conscience”, according to Thomas Aquinas , is understood on three levels: 1) In priority, it means the activity applying a cognition held according to a universal mode to a free operation calling for regulation according to the Good . Identifiable in the prefix “con-” which means a bringing together, the application of...
Conscience Quick reference
Oxford Essential Quotations (6 ed.)
... (1822) A good conscience is a continual Christmas. Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 90 American politician , inventor , and scientist Poor Richard's Almanac (1733) I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions. Lillian Hellman 1905 – 84 American dramatist letter to John S. Wood, 19 May 1952, in US Congress Committee Hearing on Un-American Activities (1952) pt. 8 cut my conscience fit this year's fashions A man's conscience and his judgement is the same thing; and as the judgement, so also the conscience, may be erroneous....
conscience Reference library
Australian Law Dictionary (3 ed.)
...conscience A self-troubling moral awareness that sits uneasily with goals of material gain and power. Conscience has no necessary connection with religion or ethics ( see also morality ). Historically, conscience was the foundation of equity , although some modern scholars (e.g. Birks) consider it inadequate, since conscience is subjective and therefore variable ( see chancellor’s foot ). This view implicitly reflects a Cartesian mind/body split, an either/or objective/subjective binary choice. The fear is that if subjectivity is admitted to legal...
conscience collectif Quick reference
A Dictionary of Sports Studies
... collectif A term, meaning ‘collective conscience’, used by Émile Durkheim to define the beliefs and feelings that are common to members of a society. The collective conscience of a people or population is defined by its social and cultural context, and can vary from region to region, and within regions themselves. Irish and Scottish Catholics following football in industrial Manchester, England, would follow the United club once a tradition of affiliation was established. So the collective conscience might not be the same for all of a complex and...
conscience clause Quick reference
A Dictionary of Law (9 ed.)
...conscience clause A clause in a law or contract that allows a person to be exempted from certain actions of which he morally disapproves. For example, in the contract of employment for doctors there is usually a conscience clause concerning exemption from carrying out...
conscience clause Quick reference
A Dictionary of Journalism
...conscience clause A stipulation in a code of ethical conduct and/or contract of employment that allows a journalist to refuse an assignment on ethical grounds, without being disciplined or dismissed as a consequence. The introduction of such a conscience clause has long been the policy of the National Union of Journalists in the UK. The idea was repeatedly rejected by the Press Complaints Commission but the Leveson Report subsequently recommended just such a clause, along with a whistleblowing hotline for journalists wishing to report unethical...
collective conscience Quick reference
A Dictionary of Sociology (4 ed.)
...conscience Defined by Émile Durkheim as ‘the body of beliefs and sentiments common to the average of members of a society’, its form and content varies according to whether society is characterized by mechanical or organic solidarity. In the former, the collective conscience is extensive and strong, ranging far and wide into people’s lives, controlling them in detail through various religious or other traditional sanctions. It emphasizes the primacy of society over the individual and his or her dignity. However, the growth of a division of labour and...
conscience’ sake Reference library
Garner’s Modern English Usage (4 ed.)
...’ sake ; conscience's sake . The traditional and overwhelmingly predominant form is conscience’ sake , which is parallel to goodness’ sake . Many writers, though, have made it conscience's sake , which is hard to speak—e.g.: “She knows it won't make a difference, but she has to go through the motions for conscience's sake [read conscience’ sake ].” Nelson Pressley , “Emotional Jackpot Eludes ‘Boomtown,’” Wash. Times , 10 Nov. 1994 , at C16. See possessives (n) . Current ratio:...
conscience vote Reference library
Australian Law Dictionary (3 ed.)
...conscience vote A vote in parliament cast against party-room policy (called a free vote , if it occurs when all members of a party are free to vote according to conscience). In a parliamentary democracy the members of the lower house represent their electorates, and the senators represent their states; as a matter of law their votes are cast individually, not en bloc as a party, and in that sense they always have a ‘free vote’ if they wish to exercise it. However, Australia has a party-political system, and MPs almost invariably vote along party lines....
conscience, freedom of Quick reference
A Dictionary of Law Enforcement (2 ed.)
..., freedom of The human right guaranteed by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights...
