Is Conscience Best Understood as a Particular Form of Consciousness? Theological and Ethical Reflections Inspired by the Phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Bibliographic Data

ID3424392
AuthorsMartin Mckeever (The Alphonsian Academy, 00185 Roma, Italy, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume14
Issue1
Pages10
Publication date2022-12-22
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel14010010
OpenAlexW4313471241
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited5

Since its emergence after the Council of Trent, moral theology as a discipline has had an intimate but problematical relationship with philosophy. All this would seem to be particularly the case with a term that has gradually become quite central to moral theological discourse: conscience. The purpose of this article is to suggest that phenomenology, as a relatively new and profoundly revolutionary branch of philosophy, has become an indispensable resource for moral theological reflection on conscience. In particular it will be argued that the thought of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) constitutes a profound -unintentional- critique of traditional conceptions of conscience and simply cannot be ignored (as it normally is!) in contemporary discussions of this theme. What follows, then, divides into four sections: the first on a traditional vision of conscience; the second on consciousness in the thought of Merleau-Ponty; the third on conscience as a form of consciousness; and the fourth on the potential contribution of this line of thought to ethics and fundamental moral theology

Acknowledgement · Casuistry · Conscience · Consciousness · Epistemology · Hermeneutics and Narrative Identity · Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism

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