Kenneth R Seeskin
Extract
Kordig denies that the dictates of one’s conscience are always either obligatory or morally permissible. With this thesis I have no quarrel. The recognition that a person’s conscience can be mistaken, sometimes dangerously so, is at least as old as Hobbes and has been maintained by philosophers as diverse as Hegel, Royce, and Nowell- Smith. Still, people do appeal to conscience in moral disputes and, as I will attempt to show, do so in a manner that is philosophically justifiable. My goal is not so much to attack what Kordig has said as it is to argue that his discussion is incomplete: some appeals to conscience are bogus but some are not.
Seeskin KR. Genuine appeals to conscience. J Value Inquiry. 1978;12(4):296-300.