A man whom I admire a great deal is the world renowned moral philosopher Professor John Haldane of St. Andrews University. A few years ago, the professor gave a talk on conscience and described our conscience as an ‘encounter with our very self’. As Haldane develops this idea, he talks about how conscience isn’t some warm fuzzy voice in our heads, saying ‘yes, that’s the right thing to do’. It’s an encounter with the whole self, our being, our beliefs, our reasoning and understanding.
Often we are faced with difficult and emotional decisions, and it is important that we are informed of all the facts before we make a decision, and are capable of making a genuine rational decision. Otherwise, there is a strong danger that our quest to make a good decision is subverted by our – very human – abilitv to mislead ourselves, whether intentionally or not.
The topic of conscience is very relevant just now because our MPs have been considering their position on the HFE Bill proposed by the government. What we are asking our politicians to do is not to make a conscientious decision, but to let their conscience present the question ‘is it right?’ Because we make a decision based on our conscience, doesn’t mean that it was the right decision, but conscience, as Haldane puts it, is meant to ‘reveal to the rightness of an act’.
This is a huge challenge which has taken seriously in all levels of society. If we are serious about ‘loving life’ then we must complement that that by ‘offering hope’ in a new and dynamic way that speaks as eloquently and persuasively to the proverbial man on the Clapham Omnibus as it does to the academic in his book-lined study.