Status Updates From On Conscience: Two Essays

"To put it another way, to seek a thorough knowledge of reality is a fundamental commandment of morality. It was not without reason that the ancients placed prudence as the first cardinal virtue: They understood it to mean the willingness and the capacity to perceive reality and respond to it in an objective manner."

"The question of God, which is the central point, is not a question for specialists. The perception of God is precisely that simplicity which the specialists can never monopolize, but rather which can be perceived only by maintaining a simplicity of vision. Perhaps we find it so difficult today to deal with the essence of humanity because we have ceased being capable of simplicity."

"In other words, included in the concept of conscience is an obligation, namely, the obligation to care for it, to form it and educate it. Conscience has a right to respect and obedience in the measure in which the person himself respects it and gives it the care which its dignity deserves. The right of conscience is the obligation of the formation of conscience."

He compares conscience to language.

At one point, he comes close to presenting the Misesian/Hayekian argument against positivist methodologies. Very interesting.

"The true nature of the Petrine office has become so incomprehensible in the modern age no doubt because we think of authority only in terms that do not allow for bridges between subject and object. Accordingly, everything that does not come from the subject is thought to be externally imposed."

"Whoever equates conscience with superficial conviction identifies conscience with a pseudo-rational certainty, a certainty that in fact has been woven from self-righteousness, conformity, and lethargy. Conscience is degraded to a mechanism for rationalization, while it should represent the transparency of the subject for the divine, and thus constitute the very dignity and greatness of man."