Morality: Freedom, Responsibility & Conscience

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering freedom, free will, types of conscience, levels of sincerity and correctness, culpability, ignorance, and key theological terms.

Freedom

Choosing the good that directs us to our end, our purpose, which is eternal beatitude (or choosing the good that directs us toward God).

Eternal beatitude

Eternal happiness and fulfillment in the presence of God (heaven).

Free Will

The power to choose, providing the ability to make a decision and choose right or wrong.

External constraints to freedom

Factors outside of ourselves that restrict our freedom, such as unjust laws and unfair disciplines.

Internal constraints to freedom

Personal weaknesses, attitudes, or habits that prevent us from choosing the good, such as selfishness, laziness, self-indulgence, ego, and vices.

Conscience

A judgment of reason by which the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete action.

Intellect

The human faculty behind conscience that provides the ability to reason and judge the morality of actions.

Natural law

The moral order established by God and understood by observing nature.

Eternal law

God's divine wisdom ordering creation.

Lax conscience

A conscience resulting from carelessness about sin that is too lenient, judges wrong actions as right, and tends toward presumption.

Presumption

Believing God will overlook sins that have not been repented of.

Scrupulous conscience

A conscience resulting from an obsession about sin that is too strict, judges right actions as wrong, and tends toward despair.

Despair

Believing that one's sinfulness is beyond God's mercy.

Tender conscience

A conscience resulting from a healthy spiritual life that maintains balanced moral judgment and judges right and wrong correctly.

Sincerity

A measurement of intention that assesses how much a person genuinely cares about moral laws.

Correctness

A measurement of knowledge that assesses how well a person understands moral laws.

Interiority

Awareness of our inner self, developed through prayer and reflection.

Formation of Conscience

A lifelong task achieved through three core steps: Learn (understand moral truth), Pray (develop an interior life), and Obey (commit to and act on God's will).

Culpability

The degree to which someone is morally responsible for a wrongful action.

Invincible ignorance

A state where a person could not reasonably have known or overcome their lack of knowledge, leaving them free of guilt for the ignorance.

Vincible ignorance

A state where a person could have known because they had an opportunity to learn, but failed to make the effort, leaving their conscience not free from guilt.

Ratzinger (on moral action)

The concept that every decision we make helps shape our identity and character; our choices shape who we become.

St. John Henry Newman

An English Oratorian who lived from 1801–1890, converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism in 1845, was canonized in 2019 by Pope Francis, and named a Doctor of the Church in 2025 by Pope Leo XIV.