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Full Idea
Butler exalts conscience, but appears ignorant that a man's conscience may tell him to do the vilest things.
Gist of Idea
Butler exalts conscience, but it may be horribly misleading
Source
comment on Joseph Butler (Fifteen Sermons [1726]) by G.E.M. Anscombe - Modern Moral Philosophy p.176
Book Ref
'The Is/Ought Question', ed/tr. Hudson,W.H. [Macmillan 1969], p.176
A Reaction
That would appear to be the end of conscience. To make conscience work, it must have a huge authority to back it, and also a fairly infallible means of knowing what it truly says, and that an impostor hasn't replaced it (e.g. via a bad upbringing).
| 21315 | A tree remains the same in the popular sense, but not in the strict philosophical sense [Butler] |
| 21317 | Despite consciousness fluctuating, we are aware that it belongs to one person [Butler] |
| 21314 | Consciousness presupposes personal identity, so it cannot constitute it [Butler] |
| 21313 | If consciousness of events makes our identity, then if we have forgotten them we didn't exist then [Butler] |
| 21318 | If the self changes, we have no responsibilities, and no interest in past or future [Butler] |
| 8066 | Butler exalts conscience, but it may be horribly misleading [Anscombe on Butler] |
| 3144 | Everything is what it is, and not another thing [Butler] |