Conscience

Surely Thomas Moore was a great example of a man who believed till the end in “what he considered right”. Pay attention to the words between hyphens. I could have written “what was right”, ma I didn’t because I believe firmly in subjectivity. Even the laws aren’t objective, they are the voice of the majority. As hard as we try to eliminate this way of viewing ethics, I don’t believe we’ll achieve great results. Let’s remember than during middle age the just was the good and the good was the beautiful, so the three coincide. I don’t think that, if is this objectivity was alright, Machiavelli would have elaborated a new perspective. He wouldn’t have made a distinction between what was just and what was good and I agree with him on this. There shall never be ethical rules that’ll be accepted by everyone, just for the fact that men are different. It would be like saying that all humans think alike and act alike pushed by the same cause towards the same aim. There can be many ways to act well but we should never think that it must be ethically correct. Moore just like Dante associated the good to the just and here lies his mistake. It’s not that I don’t share his choice of not supporting the king (The schism between England and the Catholic Church), I admire him a lot for this. “So do you also believe he acted right?” – Yes, I do because that was what he conscience suggested to him. “So, do I have to blindly obey my conscience to be always right?” – No, you don’t. Simply because I believe that in dealing with the theme of conscience we should also take another one into consideration: the theme of responsibility. A conscious man is also responsible, in my opinion. There is no objective ethics so, consciences won’t be the same for everyone. Don’t forget that the environment in which we grow up, the family, school, friends, can contribute to form the ethical values of a person. I am not saying that humans are totally exposed to the influence of external factors with no way of protecting themselves because I am of the opinion that we have the innate capacity to distinguish between good and evil which don’t necessarily correspond respectively to right and wrong. For this reason when a person decides to listen to that little voice inside their head, they should be ready to face the consequences of what the decisions might comport. When you don’t calculate the pros and againsts of every choice you make, you damage yourself and those around you. Of what use is a conscience that doesn’t favor you? Think about that! “Isn’t this selfishness?” – You are right to say this is pure selfishness, because it is. In my view a man who knows what’s good for him, knows what’s good for his neighbor. “So, is there an objective good?” – There is nothing objective in this world. You can’t satisfy everyone at the same time: someone shall always lose. To conclude I’ll say: “Choose your song but be ready to dance to the rhythm”.