Moral Conscience through the Ages: Fifth Century BCE to the Present

by Richard Sorabji

In Moral Conscience through the Ages , Richard Sorabji brings his erudition and philosophical acumen to bear on a fundamental what is conscience? Examining the ways we have conceived of that little voice in our heads―our self-directed judge―he teases out its most enduring elements, the aspects that have survived from the Greek playwrights in the fifth century BCE through St Paul, the Church Fathers, Catholics and Protestants, all the way to the 17th century’s political unrest and the critics and champions of the eighteenth to twentieth centuries.

Sorabji examines an impressive breadth of the longing for different kinds of freedom of conscience, the proper limits of freedom itself, protests at conscience’s being ‘terrorized,’ dilemmas of conscience, the value of conscience to human beings, its secularization, its reliability, and ways to improve it. These historical issues are alive today, with fresh concerns about topics such as conscientious objection, the force of conscience, or the balance between freedoms of conscience, religion, and speech. The result is a stunningly comprehensive look at a central component of our moral understanding.

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 27, 2014