Now is the moment in which we freely choose to act. What we do is informed by what we know. We have some knowledge of what came before now, given by our own experience or by the experience of others (knowing with others = CON-SCIENCE = communal knowledge, knowing with one's community). We have no knowledge of what will come after, although we may imagine that we do know what to expect given what we or others claim to know.
Every act we choose to do is subject to the judgment of our conscience. It is by our conscience that we know whether some act is good or bad. It is wise to follow one's conscience and foolish to do otherwise. Wisdom would then require that we be careful in the formation of conscience. Ignoring what we know will provoke our conscience to make us aware of our act of ignorance.
Acting contrary to one's conscience will confuse one's identity; one who acts in such a way must actively ignore this contradiction of conscience in order to present oneself otherwise to another person - this is hypocrisy. Community cannot continue if hypocrisy is left unchecked. Rather than sharing common knowledge, the community will suffer debililative ignorance. The lies that follow from ignoring one's conscience will ultimately dissolve the bonds of community are formed by true relationship. Rather than allowing truth to form the conscience of those in community, hypocrisy let's guile be the ground for given knowledge.
Without truth, one cannot live freely. The deformed conscience that comes from hypocritical community lets lies be the rule which will only keep those under such rule in bondage.
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The following is a fresh reconsideration that came about as a response to a student's e-mail. It may seem redundant but I thought it worth posting:
"Now" is the time we have for any act we freely choose to do. What we "know" of the past, what came before now, is given to us through others and, as we mature, through our own experience. What we "know" of the future, what will come after now, is speculative, really "unknown." We freely act on what we know or think we know.
The question of "knowing" is related to one's conscience. Conscience is knowing what we choose to do; such knowing brings to mind not only that act but also what we think about that act. Thus conscience is "knowing with action." Prior to action, one's knowing is only an idea that may or may not correspond to what is real; at the time of action, one's knowing becomes reality that can radically reform one's ideas. One might imagine any number of possibilities before one acts, but after one acts, one is confronted with the stark reality of what one has actually done. Denying this reality deforms one's conscience in such a way as to cloud one's knowing so that one's future actions are taken with unsure and/or false knowledge.
How can one trust what one thinks one knows, especially when such knowledge is given not from one's personal experience of making choices but from the experience of others? This problem of how one's conscience is formed is a prime focus of Christian Ethics.
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