Baumgarten and Kant on Conscience

Abstract Both Baumgarten and Kant adopt a legalistic perspective in ethics, emphasizing the significance of imputation and judgment. They both regard moral conscience as the capacity to evaluate one’s actions, with Baumgarten emphasizing judgment as imputation: the interpretation of actions and the application of moral obligation based on one’s conscience. He advocates acting in line with the “best” conscience. Conversely, Kant distinguishes between judgments regarding actions and the judgment of conscience, advocating following one’s best judgment while acknowledging its fallibility. To act morally, Kant demands an evaluation of whether we are guilty or innocent before our own judgment of doing our best to determine what we ought to do, and thus from the standpoint of morality, not mere legality. Finally, he asserts that conscience is infallible, akin to a court of last instance, having the final say about each decision, although it can still be subjectively mistaken.