Moral Conscience, Freedom, and Responsibility

Posted on Feb 3, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Moral

Moral is the set of schemes that have acquired standards through our education, family, and social context. It is what we hold at the time of moral judgment.

Moral conscience as a faculty:

  1. These are the norms that connect to a person’s moral awareness.
  2. The moral sentiments in different situations that arise before going live.

Traits:

  1. It is not innate but socially learned.
  2. It is subject to change and evolution.
  3. It is forged in a dialectic between the individual and society.

The role of society:

  1. From childhood, a person is subject to social influences under which they forge their ideas and their moral role models.
  2. The weight of tradition and customs is significant.
  3. The only defense against social pressure is always to be aware of this influence and to critically analyze the established morality.

Savater gives us a set of practical guidelines that can guide us in developing our moral conscience.

Role of Moral Conscience

  1. Evaluation of standards and values: It can be used for critical analysis of received values and standards.
  2. Moral judgment: We can use it for the understanding, evaluation, and guidance of our actions and those of others through moral judgment.

Analysis of its Performance in Moral Judgments

It requires a serious reflection on the problematic because we find that possessing moral standards is of a general character, and to judge the actions are always of a unique character. How is a review carried out?

An informed moral conscience of the concrete circumstances, with the help of the different values and elements of standards that outline the specific moral action we are about to judge.

Freedom of Action

When speaking in this sense of freedom, it is identified with a type of external links to liberty that is also called legal and political liberties (Mill).

Freedom of choice: Refers to an inner freedom that takes on significance in the field of morality because if we suppose its existence, the moral action would not make sense, nor could we be responsible for our actions.

Is Man Free?

It is a subjective belief. We cannot say that we are free if we assume that our behavior is determined. If, however, we suppose that it is only conditioned:

  1. Determined conduct is inevitable.
  2. Conditioned conduct: The human being can choose liberty or indeterminism.

Possible attitudes:

  1. Determinism: Denial of freedom, a “dream” caused by ignorance of the real and unavoidable causes that have led us to act as we have.
  2. Indeterminism: Affirmation of freedom. Recognizes the different motivations and factors influencing a person’s decisions.

Can the Existence of Freedom be Demonstrated?

  1. Freedom as evidenced by Sartre: We consider freedom an essential feature of being human.
  2. Freedom as a belief according to Kant: The existence of human freedom cannot be demonstrated.

Limits in Human Freedom

Freedom is not absolute or omnipotent but is conditioned.

  1. Biological conditions:
    1. Genetics: Behavior is influenced by our genetic code.
    2. Psychological (Freud): There are unconscious elements and pulsional forces.
  2. Cultural and character-conditioning factors:
    1. Economics: The consciousness of individuals influences their ideas and values.
    2. Social: The education we receive.
    3. Religious: Our beliefs and religious ideas.

Freedom and Responsibility: What Does Being Responsible Mean?

  1. Being capable of responding for one’s own actions before others.
  2. Being willing to do so, that is, to respond to them.

When Are We Responsible?

  1. When the consequences were entirely unpredictable.
  2. When the action was carried out under involuntary duress.
  3. When it was reasonably insurmountable.