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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2009
This article seeks to clarify the meaning of conscience and to exhibit its role in the philosophy of Hobbes. The author compares Hobbes's philosophy to Locke's doctrine. Instead of the usual contrast of Hobbes, the enemy to the claims of conscience, and Locke, the defender of the rights of conscience, he shows that Hobbes found a place for conscience within the law—the rights of defendants to a jury of their choice, and the rights of jurors to a verdict according to their conscience—whereas Locke found a place for conscience outside the law, in the judgment of revolutionaries when a revolution is justifiable or successful. In elaborating Hobbes's views of trial by jury, the author suggests that the best forensic metaphor for conscience is a juror (rather than the more usual ones of a witness, a judge or a legislator). Conscience is subjective certainty, dangerous outside an institutional setting, but indispensable for decisions not based on demonstrable knowledge, such as a juror's verdict beyond reasonable doubt.
Cet article cherche à clarifier la signification de la conscience et de démontrer son rôle dans la pensée de Thomas Hobbes. Pour y parvenir, l'auteur compare la philosophie de Hobbes et l'idéologie de John Locke. Au lieu de l'opposition habituelle entre Locke, l'ami de la conscience, et Hobbes, l'ennemi de la conscience, il démontre que Hobbes a identifié un rôle pour la conscience dans la loi, dans les droits des défendeurs à un jury de leur choix, et les droits des jurés à un verdict selon leurs consciences, tandis que Locke a identifié un rôle pour la conscience hors la loi, dans le jugement des révolutionnaires lorsqu'une révolution est juste (heureuse). En présentant la perspective de Hobbes concernant le procès par jury, l'auteur propose que le juré est la meilleure métaphore pour la conscience (au lieu des métaphores légales d'un témoin, d'un juge ou d'un législateur). La conscience est la certitude subjective, périlleuse hors d'un environnement institutionnel, mais essentielle pour les décisions qui ne sont pas fondées sur la science, tel qu'un verdict par juré fondé sur le doute raisonnable.
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