Moral conscience cannot justify political editorial decisions

Evidence

But if he is bluffi ng, if he fails to give his readers what he has promised them, then why defend the independence of the paper? Similarly, he tells the younger man, Lambert, one can’t defend the paper’s independence on the grounds that one must be free to follow one’s own conscience, for this too is to act from ignorance: “‘It’s just a question of speaking as our consciences dictate!’ Lambert said. ‘Did you ever stop to think what that means?’ Henri asked. ‘Every morning I tell a hundred thousand people how they ought to think. And what do I guide myself by? Th e voice of my conscience! … It’s a gigantic swindle’” (Man, 177). — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 490

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes Sartre’s critique of bad faith and the appeal to conscience as evasion, central to the reader’s Beauvoir-Sartre influence question. — connects to: Political agency cannot be grasped apart from ethical agency — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival…, 253; Unintentional editorial priorities still yield enormous political consequences; Portraying constitutional conscience truthfully requires offering a moral choice — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 169

Broader Connections

• Unintentional editorial priorities still yield enormous political consequences #complicates (0.80)
• Political agency cannot be grasped apart from ethical agency #qualifies (0.75) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 253
• Portraying constitutional conscience truthfully requires offering a moral choice #complicates (0.70) — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 169