Our society's longstanding commitment to the liberty of conscience has become strained by our increasingly muddled understanding of what conscience is and why we value it. Too often we equate conscience with individual autonomy, and so we reflexively favor the individual in any contest against group authority, losing sight of the fact that a vibrant liberty of conscience requires a vibrant marketplace of morally distinct groups. Defending individual autonomy is not the same as defending the liberty of conscience because, although conscience is inescapably personal, it is also inescapably relational. Conscience is formed, articulated, and lived out through relationships, and its viability depends on the law's willingness to protect the associations and venues through which individual consciences can flourish: these are the myriad institutions that make up the space between the person and the state. Conscience and the Common Good reframes the debate about conscience by bringing its relational dimension into focus.
Author(s): Robert K. Vischer
Edition: 1
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 326
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Permissions......Page 11
Introduction......Page 13
Law's conscience conundrum......Page 14
Conscience's relational dimension......Page 15
The moral marketplace......Page 16
Conscience's new battle lines......Page 18
A road map......Page 20
Part I The Relational Dimension of Conscience......Page 25
1 Conscience in Law......Page 27
Seeger's lessons......Page 28
Lesson 1: Consciences Authority......Page 29
Conscience as a “Black Box”......Page 32
Beyond the “Black Box”......Page 33
The Self-Contained Conscience......Page 34
Privileging Religion......Page 36
Context Matters......Page 38
The Jury as “Community Conscience”......Page 42
The State as “Community Conscience”......Page 44
Conscience as Individual Liberty......Page 46
Conscience and Coercion......Page 48
The evolving liberty of conscience......Page 51
Future challenges......Page 55
2 Conscience and the Person......Page 60
Early christianity......Page 62
The scholastics......Page 65
The reformation......Page 68
The enlightenment......Page 70
Modern insights......Page 75
Conscience and the person......Page 82
3 Conscience’s Claims......Page 85
Beyond preference......Page 86
Moral Claims and Reality......Page 90
Moral Claims and Community......Page 93
Moral Claims and Value Pluralism......Page 97
The intersubjectivity of conscience......Page 99
The Second-Person Standpoint......Page 101
Conscience and Accountability......Page 104
Spheres of Intersubjectivity......Page 105
Conscience’s claims......Page 107
4 Conscience and the Common Good......Page 110
Conscience as action......Page 111
Conceptions of the common good......Page 113
1. Subsidiarity......Page 116
2. Sphere Sovereignty......Page 118
3. Organic Solidarity......Page 122
4. The Moral Marketplace......Page 124
5. Cultural Cognition......Page 127
Conscience and the common good......Page 130
Part II Implications......Page 135
5 Voluntary Associations......Page 137
Associations and identity......Page 139
Identity and the Power to Exclude......Page 140
Limits on the Power to Exclude......Page 144
Associations and expression......Page 146
Associations and purpose......Page 150
Direct Funding......Page 153
Indirect Funding (Vouchers)......Page 159
Regulation Absent Funding......Page 161
Conscience and associations......Page 164
6 Pharmacies......Page 167
A New Culture War Battleground......Page 168
The Pharmacist Wars in Context......Page 172
Defining Liberty in the Pharmacy......Page 176
The Moral Marketplace and Collective Power......Page 180
The State as Market Actor......Page 183
Conscience and health care......Page 188
Corporate conscience in the marketplace......Page 191
The Nature of the Corporation......Page 192
The Corporation and Collective Norms......Page 194
Corporate Identity and the Market......Page 197
Contract or Community?......Page 198
Supporting the Corporations Moral Identity......Page 202
Corporate Culture and Personal Integrity......Page 207
Faith in the Workplace......Page 208
Institutional Conscience versus Employee Conscience......Page 209
Employee Conscience versus Employee Conscience......Page 213
Transcending the Value-Free Workplace......Page 214
Conscience and corporations......Page 217
8 Schools......Page 218
Conscience in cupertino......Page 219
Conscience in dover......Page 221
Common school paradigms......Page 223
The Assimilationist Common School......Page 224
The Individualist Common School......Page 225
Student Speech in the Common School......Page 229
Opting Out Within the Common School......Page 234
The Charter School Movement......Page 239
Charter Schools and the First Amendment......Page 242
Zelman and Conscience......Page 245
Vouchers and Public Norms......Page 247
Conscience and schools......Page 250
9 Families......Page 251
From status to contract......Page 253
Status to Contract: Adult Intimacy......Page 254
Status to Contract: Parent and Child......Page 257
Marriage......Page 264
Childrens Rights......Page 265
Physical Abuse/Medical Neglect......Page 267
The States Arbitral Role in Divorce and Custody......Page 268
Biology versus the Family as Community......Page 271
Third Parties versus the Family as Community......Page 272
The state's channeling function......Page 273
Beyond Paternalism......Page 274
The Need for Critical Discourse......Page 275
The Limits of Channeling......Page 277
Conscience and families......Page 278
10 The Legal Profession......Page 281
The moral dimension of legal advice......Page 283
Lawyers’ Personal Moral Claims......Page 284
Lawyers’ Reflective Moral Claims......Page 291
Lawyers’ Professional Moral Claims......Page 294
Lawyers as market actors......Page 297
Prophet versus Judge......Page 298
Lawyer versus Judge......Page 299
Conscience versus the Rule of Law......Page 301
Client Autonomy and the Lawyers Conscience......Page 303
The Religious Lawyering Movement......Page 305
The Cause Lawyering Movement......Page 307
The judge's conscience......Page 308
Conscience and the legal profession......Page 313
Conclusion......Page 315
Index......Page 323
