Butler and Conscience
Joseph Butler (1692–1752), Bishop of Durham, developed an influential account of conscience. He argued conscience is the highest human faculty—an intuitive moral sense perceiving rightness and wrongness. Conscience is both authority and motivation; following conscience is the chief human good.
Real World
When a whistleblower like Edward Snowden acts against orders because of a deep sense that mass surveillance is wrong, they illustrate Butler's idea that conscience overrides external authority and self-interest.
Exam Focus
Always explain Butler's key term 'supremacy of conscience' and contrast it with reason-based approaches to secure the highest marks.
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