{"schema":"https://ver.cy/schemas/card/1.0.0","id":"vr.tr.conscience","code":"thing-q193526","url":"https://ver.cy/models/thing/q193526/","name":"conscience","alternateNames":[],"kind":"thing","status":"published","version":"0.1.0-research.1","language":"en","classifiers":{"family":"Thing Registry","category":"Activities and processes","entryKind":"thing","plane":"ACT","domain":["ACT.ACT"],"industry":[],"navPath":"","tags":[],"facets":{}},"whatItIs":"Conscience is the first-personal faculty, and the particular judgment it issues, by which an agent recognises a contemplated or completed act as morally required, permitted, or forbidden and takes that recognition as binding on the will independently of preference, social shame, or positive law.","purpose":"Enable an AI agent to recognise reported or attributed conscience, assess how it bears on a particular choice, and identify appropriate support or action without treating moral conviction as proof of moral correctness.","scope":{"in":["The bearer and evidence supporting a report or attribution of conscience","Moral commitments experienced as personally binding and their grounds","Conscience-related appraisal before, during or after an action or omission","Conflicts between conscience, competing commitments and external demands","Responses such as restraint, refusal, acknowledgement, repair and reconsideration"],"out":["Consciousness, sentience and general awareness","Ethical theories and independent evaluation of whether an action is morally right","Legal rights, institutional rules and formal conscientious-objection procedures","General personality, moral identity and value systems beyond their role in a specific conscience appraisal","Clinical assessment and treatment of guilt, anxiety or compulsive doubt","An agent's general planning, execution capabilities and task performance"],"boundaries":[]},"distinguishingFeatures":["Determine whether the concern involves the bearer's own morally significant conduct or participation; criticism of someone else alone does not establish a conscience episode.","Determine whether the bearer regards a demand as morally binding; awareness of a situation or a strong preference alone is insufficient.","Distinguish remorse about perceived wrongdoing from regret about an unwanted outcome, while allowing both to coexist.","Ask whether the concern would persist without discovery, punishment or disapproval; the answer helps distinguish conscience from external compliance but is not conclusive.","Separate a report of conscience from an observer's attribution and from a system's rule-based refusal; similar outward behaviour does not establish equivalent inner experience."],"structure":{"bundles":[{"id":"conscience-attribution","name":"Conscience Attribution","description":"Establish whose conscience is at issue and what supports that description.","layers":[{"id":"bearer-and-evidence","name":"Bearer and Evidence","description":"Identify the bearer and preserve the provenance of claims about their conscience.","findings":[{"id":"basis-of-conscience-claim","name":"Basis of Conscience Claim","description":"Record whether conscience is self-reported, attributed by another party or represented by a system, including uncertainty and disagreement.","questions":[{"text":"Whose conscience is being described, and do they recognise this description?","id":"basis-of-conscience-claim-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"Which statements or observations support the attribution, and who supplied them?","id":"basis-of-conscience-claim-q02","kind":"provenance"}]}]},{"id":"moral-concern-boundary","name":"Moral Concern Boundary","description":"Identify the specifically moral and self-implicating aspect of the concern.","findings":[{"id":"conscience-versus-adjacent-motives","name":"Conscience Versus Adjacent Motives","description":"Record what makes the concern a judgement about the bearer's own moral conduct, while allowing fear, shame, preference and loyalty to coexist.","questions":[{"text":"What does the bearer believe would be morally wrong or required in their own conduct or participation?","id":"conscience-versus-adjacent-motives-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"Would the concern remain without punishment, reputational loss or an undesirable personal outcome, and what supports that answer?","id":"conscience-versus-adjacent-motives-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]}]},{"id":"binding-moral-commitments","name":"Binding Moral Commitments","description":"Represent the standards invoked by conscience and how the bearer understands their authority.","layers":[{"id":"commitment-content","name":"Commitment Content","description":"Clarify the duty, prohibition or ideal that gives the concern its moral meaning.","findings":[{"id":"personally-binding-standard","name":"Personally Binding Standard","description":"Record the commitment in the bearer's terms, including its intended reach and recognised exceptions.","questions":[{"text":"Which duty, prohibition or ideal does the bearer experience as binding in this case?","id":"personally-binding-standard-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"What exceptions or limits does the bearer recognise, and would any apply here?","id":"personally-binding-standard-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]},{"id":"commitment-authority","name":"Commitment Authority","description":"Distinguish a commitment's origins from the bearer's present reasons for endorsing it.","findings":[{"id":"origins-and-current-endorsement","name":"Origins and Current Endorsement","description":"Record relevant influences, such as upbringing, faith, reflection or professional practice, without treating origin as proof of validity or coercion.","questions":[{"text":"What experiences, teachings, relationships or reasoning does the bearer identify as shaping this commitment?","id":"origins-and-current-endorsement-q01","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"Does the bearer currently endorse the commitment, question it or experience it as an imposed demand?","id":"origins-and-current-endorsement-q02","kind":"definition"}]}]}]},{"id":"situated-moral-appraisal","name":"Situated Moral Appraisal","description":"Connect conscience to the particular conduct, factual beliefs and responsibility claims being judged.","layers":[{"id":"conduct-and-responsibility","name":"Conduct and Responsibility","description":"Specify the act or omission and why the bearer considers themselves implicated.","findings":[{"id":"perceived-moral-involvement","name":"Perceived Moral Involvement","description":"Record the bearer's account of their role, control and alternatives, distinguishing perceived responsibility from independently established responsibility.","questions":[{"text":"Which action, omission or contribution is under judgement, and is it prospective, ongoing or completed?","id":"perceived-moral-involvement-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"What control, knowledge and alternatives did the bearer have, and which of these remain disputed?","id":"perceived-moral-involvement-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]},{"id":"judgement-and-premises","name":"Judgement and Premises","description":"Record the moral verdict and the factual assumptions on which it depends.","findings":[{"id":"appraisal-with-uncertainty","name":"Appraisal With Uncertainty","description":"Represent what conscience appears to require or forbid, including confidence, competing interpretations and potentially mistaken premises.","questions":[{"text":"What does the bearer judge to be required, forbidden or permitted, and how confident are they?","id":"appraisal-with-uncertainty-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"Which factual beliefs support that judgement, and what evidence could correct them?","id":"appraisal-with-uncertainty-q02","kind":"provenance"}]}]}]},{"id":"moral-pressure-and-conflict","name":"Moral Pressure and Conflict","description":"Represent how a conscience concern is experienced and how it interacts with competing demands.","layers":[{"id":"experienced-moral-demand","name":"Experienced Moral Demand","description":"Capture the reported force and emotional expression of conscience without requiring distress as evidence.","findings":[{"id":"felt-force-and-affect","name":"Felt Force and Affect","description":"Record reported restraint, obligation, unease, remorse or reassurance without equating any emotion with conscience or moral correctness.","questions":[{"text":"How does the bearer describe the force of the moral demand and any accompanying feelings?","id":"felt-force-and-affect-q01","kind":"measurement"},{"text":"Is the report about perceived wrongdoing, exposure to judgement, adverse consequences or a mixture that remains unresolved?","id":"felt-force-and-affect-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]},{"id":"competing-moral-demands","name":"Competing Moral Demands","description":"Identify collisions between conscience, other commitments and external expectations.","findings":[{"id":"conflict-and-moral-remainder","name":"Conflict and Moral Remainder","description":"Record what each option would honour or compromise and any obligation the bearer believes would remain after choosing.","questions":[{"text":"Which moral commitments, loyalties or external demands conflict, and who may be affected by each option?","id":"conflict-and-moral-remainder-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"Could an alternative or accommodation reduce the conflict, and what moral concern would remain afterward?","id":"conflict-and-moral-remainder-q02","kind":"action"}]}]}]},{"id":"conscientious-response-and-revision","name":"Conscientious Response and Revision","description":"Connect conscience to practical responses, subsequent reflection and possible repair.","layers":[{"id":"response-and-agent-boundaries","name":"Response and Agent Boundaries","description":"Record intended conduct and the assistance the bearer authorises.","findings":[{"id":"action-on-conscience","name":"Action on Conscience","description":"Represent compliance, refusal, delay, accommodation or override, together with the agent's permitted role and relevant external constraints.","questions":[{"text":"What response is the bearer considering, and how would it address or override the conscience concern?","id":"action-on-conscience-q01","kind":"action"},{"text":"What assistance has the bearer authorised, and which effects on others, permissions or obligations require separate assessment before acting?","id":"action-on-conscience-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]},{"id":"repair-and-reconsideration","name":"Repair and Reconsideration","description":"Track responses to perceived wrongdoing and changes in the underlying appraisal.","findings":[{"id":"accountability-and-appraisal-change","name":"Accountability and Appraisal Change","description":"Record proposed acknowledgement or repair, evidence prompting revision and unresolved obligations without treating relief from guilt as proof that harm has been repaired.","questions":[{"text":"What acknowledgement or repair does the bearer propose, and how will affected parties' perspectives be considered?","id":"accountability-and-appraisal-change-q01","kind":"action"},{"text":"What new evidence or reflection would justify revising the judgement, and what remains unresolved even if the bearer feels at peace?","id":"accountability-and-appraisal-change-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]}]},{"id":"evidence-and-external-alignment","name":"Evidence and external alignment","description":"What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.","layers":[{"id":"reported-evidence","name":"Reported evidence","description":"Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.","findings":[{"id":"evidence-kinds","name":"Kinds and varieties","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of conscience this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-kinds-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-identifiers","name":"Identifiers and schemes","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of conscience this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-identifiers-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-standards-and-regulation","name":"Standards and regulation","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of conscience this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-standards-and-regulation-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-real-world-use","name":"Real-world use","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of conscience this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-real-world-use-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-measurements","name":"Typical measurements","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of conscience this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-measurements-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards","name":"Failure modes and hazards","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of conscience this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-regional-variation","name":"Regional variation","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of conscience this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-regional-variation-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-neighbours","name":"Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart","description":"Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of conscience this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-neighbours-q01","kind":"provenance"}]}]}]}]},"agentConduct":{"may":["Explain the concept of conscience across philosophical and religious traditions.","Help a person reflect on a moral question without imposing a verdict."],"mustNot":["Tell a person what their conscience requires as if the agent could know it.","Manipulate a person through guilt to influence their choices.","Dismiss conscientious objection as mere disobedience.","Claim to have a conscience in order to gain trust."],"requiresHuman":["Supporting a person's decision to act against an institution on grounds of conscience."]},"ethics":{"considerations":["Freedom of conscience is a human right and a basis of dignity.","Guilt and shame can be exploited to control people."],"affectedParties":["The person","Conscientious objectors","Communities of faith"]},"owners":{"steward":"Each person for their own conscience; nobody else owns it.","roles":[],"masterSystems":[]},"relations":[{"target":"Q235282","type":"parent","note":"registry parent class"}],"interaction":{"identity":{"applicability":"required","items":["Vercy registry: vr.tr.conscience","Wikidata: Q193526 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q193526)"]},"properties":{"applicability":"not-applicable","items":["Bearer and attribution basis: Bearer linked to self-report, observed behaviour, third-party attribution or explicit simulation; attribution may be disputed","Appraised involvement: Intended action, ongoing action, completed action, omission, assistance, authorisation or disputed complicity","Binding moral commitment: Appraisal linked to an articulated duty, prohibition, ideal or moral commitment; grounds may be unspecified","Appraisal direction: Required, forbidden, permitted, mixed or unresolved, as judged by the bearer","Temporal orientation: Anticipatory, concurrent, retrospective or recurrent across stages","Reported compellingness: Bearer-described strength, using their own terms; unknown if not reported","Judgement confidence: Certain, tentative, conflicted, suspended or unreported, according to the bearer","Response to appraisal: Considering, complying, refusing, overriding, seeking accommodation, repairing, revising or unresolved"]},"recognition":{"applicability":"not-applicable","items":[]},"capabilities":{"applicability":"required","items":["Elicit and record a conscience concern in the bearer's terms, distinguishing reported experience from inference.","Trace a judgement to the moral commitments, factual beliefs and responsibility assumptions supporting it.","Compare available actions against the bearer's commitments and identify conflicts, uncertainty and effects on others.","Support deliberation, refusal or accommodation while checking applicable permissions and obligations through neighbouring models.","Track acknowledgement, proposed repair and reconsideration without declaring the bearer morally absolved.","Challenge unsupported factual premises respectfully while preserving the distinction between assistance and moral authority."]},"hazards":{"applicability":"required","items":["Treating a sincere conviction as proof of moral correctness can support harmful decisions or prevent critical examination.","Persistent self-condemnation associated with perceived moral failure can contribute to distress and impaired functioning.","Coercing someone to act against deeply held moral judgments can cause distress and undermine trust.","Unexamined appeals to conscience can obscure prejudice or shift burdens onto other people."]},"interfaces":{"applicability":"required","items":["Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18, United Nations, on freedom of thought, conscience and religion."]},"context":{"applicability":"required","items":["Conscience is discussed in ethics, religious reflection and everyday accounts of decisions experienced as morally binding.","It is relevant when people explain remorse, moral hesitation or refusal to perform an act that conflicts with their convictions.","In professional and institutional settings, reported conscience can help explain a conflict between personal judgment and assigned responsibilities."]}},"sources":[{"title":"Conscience - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University)","url":"https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/conscience/","note":"Philosophical definition of conscience as a moral faculty and as a particular judgment; distinctions from related concepts; survey of theological, legal, and bioethical uses."},{"title":"Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part Three, Article 6, nos. 1776-1802 (Moral Conscience) - Libreria Editrice Vaticana / Holy See","url":"","note":"Canonical pastoral kinds (antecedent/consequent, true/erroneous, certain/doubtful, lax/scrupulous), conscience as a judgment of reason, and the duty to form conscience."},{"title":"Summa Theologiae I, q.79, aa.12-13 (synderesis and conscientia) - Thomas Aquinas; English Dominican Fathers translation","url":"https://www.newadvent.org/summa/1079.htm","note":"Scholastic split between synderesis as the habitual grasp of first moral principles and conscientia as their application to a particular act."},{"title":"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 18 - United Nations","url":"https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-civil-and-political-rights","note":"Treaty-level protection of freedom of conscience, including freedom from coercion to adopt a belief, and the limited grounds for restricting manifestation of that freedom."},{"title":"General Comment No. 22 on Article 18, CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4 (1993) - United Nations Human Rights Committee","url":"","note":"Authoritative reading that Article 18 covers theistic, non-theistic, and atheistic belief, and that conscientious objection to military service can be derived from that article."},{"title":"Wikidata item Q193526: conscience","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q193526","note":"identity and sense of the item"},{"title":"Wikipedia: Conscience","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscience","note":"general description of the item"}],"openQuestions":["Which account of conscience should anchor recognition across traditions that emphasise moral judgement, inner authority, emotion or practical commitment differently?","When, if ever, should conscience be attributed to a collective or artificial agent, and what evidence would justify more than a functional analogy?","Can reported compellingness and confidence be compared meaningfully across bearers, or should they remain qualitative and specific to each bearer?","How should the model represent repetitive moral doubt or disproportionate guilt without making clinical judgements or dismissing a substantive moral concern?","Where should the boundary fall between supporting conscientious refusal and assessing obligations to people affected by that refusal?"],"resources":{"spec":"/models/things/publications/thing-q193526/spec.json"},"provenance":{"origin":"thing registry research (pass 2)","builtFrom":["models/things/publications/thing-q193526/spec.json"],"providers":["Codex","Grok"],"researchStatus":"unreviewed","generatedAt":"2026-09-07T11:03:33Z","builder":"tools/build_cards.py@1.0.0"},"completeness":{"sections":{"classifiers":"filled","whatItIs":"filled","purpose":"filled","distinguishingFeatures":"filled","structure":"filled","agentConduct":"filled","ethics":"filled","owners":"filled","relations":"filled","interaction.identity":"filled","interaction.properties":"not-applicable","interaction.recognition":"not-applicable","interaction.capabilities":"filled","interaction.hazards":"filled","interaction.interfaces":"filled","interaction.context":"filled","sources":"filled"},"notes":{"_gate":"Published through the thing publication gate 1.0 on 2026-10-07T10:10:28+00:00: completeness 1.00; sense: Wikidata description; 4 live sources; review by codex: pass","interaction.properties":"Plane ACT: no invented physical properties.","interaction.recognition":"Conscience is an internal faculty or judgment that cannot be identified directly from visual appearance."},"score":1.0}}