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The Human Conscience By Butler
In the "Five Sermons," Joseph Butler emphasizes the importance of reflection and conscience in human nature. Butler belives that humans are not "simply collections of desires and aversions of internal forces" that develop in a systematic fashion (Butler 4). Therefore, he identifies humans as a psychological system that relies on reflection or conscience to analyze and justify actions. He also addresses the authoritative role of the conscience in moral decisions. Butler recognizes that humans more often give in to "particular passions," and disregard the conscience, which should hold as the supreme authority in nature (Butler 20). An individual’s conscience, when in the correct state, cannot advise a person to commit an dishonorable action; thus, by examining the self-authorizing nature of the innate conscience, Butler seperates his argument from a religious standpoint to a philosophical study of human nature through the significance of reflection and conscience. Butler elevates humans above a seemingly simplistic organism, which initially identifies an effect of the human conscience. He does not reduce morality to self interest, rather he claims to derive it from our nature. In an effort to illustrate some truths about human nature, he explains that humans are not "inanimate and passive machines" that follow confining methods to formulate their actions. Humans do not follow rigid guidelines in order to react to decisions that confront them. Since humans are not systematically restrained, the human "constitution is put in our own power" (Butler 15). This observation addresses the significance of the human conscience. Directly responsible for human complexity, "the authority of reflection or conscience signifies the idea of the system of human nature" (Butler 14). This relaization differs from other animals which "may perhaps consist in simply acting on the strongest desire" (Butler 5). As a result, o... Please login to view comments from other users.
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