Ontology and Conditions of Operability of Conscientious Objection

Abstract

This essay aims to investigate, analyze, and reflect upon the mode of being and the conditions of operability of conscientious objection, whose significance lies in the conflict—at times, profoundly dramatic—between the juridical normativity that imposes a certain course of action and the ethical or moral normativity that opposes precisely that action. Added to this is a certain institutional incontinence of political power, which has increasingly encroached upon various domains bordering human conscience, imposing values that do not always align with the normative demands that are proper and fundamental to human nature, and at times, directly contradict them. In the sections that follow, the history and concept of conscientious objection will be outlined, along with the most basic theoretical categories involved—political power, conscience, freedom, ethics, practical truth, democracy, pluralism, legality, and the common good. Based on these, we will seek to clarify the horizons of knowledge regarding the importance of the right to conscientious objection, bring to light the tensions between the political and personal spheres, raise questions about the limits of action for each, and ultimately uncover the cooperative ties between these two existential spheres in the pursuit of the conditions for the operability of conscientious objection.