Abstract

The idea that men and women are morally responsible outside of particular social practices and conventions of praise and blame requires at the very least a conception of someone to whom or something to which they are responsible. To the Judaeo-Christian mind the immediate tribunal before which the self is summoned has always been 'conscience upon which is engraved the law of God'. Norms of responsibility are not therefore to be to simply considered a matter of individual choice, or preference, or even social convention. Ultimately the individual is responsible for herself or himself and the demand for an authentic coherent ethical stance is thus fundamental to the moral life.