CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The modern world is characterized by violence, riots, wars, terrorism, and abortion, which constitute threats to the peaceful co-existence of men.  Analysts have strived to bring out solution to the problem in their various capacities. Both the advocates of peace and terror, theists and atheists explicitly or implicitly speak and write about conscience and its place in the pursuit of particular causes. Hence the notion of conscience is a point of interest to all.            
The term conscience appears in the constitutions of many nations today as well as in the official documents of the church.  Civil rights activists have often used the terms “white conscience”, “public conscience” Christian conscience” and so on, as weapons of remedy against various ills and excesses of ideologies.  Scholastic philosophers are themselves neither unanimous nor constant in their use of the word conscience.
This overview is nevertheless sufficient to show that conscience embodies various meanings and covers situations ranging from view of life to personal conviction, social values and objective standard of conduct for different peoples.  The nature of conscience has, as a result, been variously interpreted as an interior voice, a faculty, an act of judgement, a habit, etc.  The lack or absence of unanimity in the usage and interpretations of conscience by both secular and ecclesiastical writers often blur and make ambiguous its true meaning.  Thus, the ordinary man is all the more perplexed with regard to its function as a norm of morality. In this light, it is an onerous task to arrive at an understanding of the nature of conscience and its obligation.
Authority irks modern man. For him, freedom is the absence of restraint.  In many democratic countries, for instance, freedom becomes equated with irresponsibility.  Often the basis of dissent is sought in conscience, which serves as an arsenal of defense against the demands of authority.  In moral matters, the emphasis is on personal autonomy that refuses to look beyond self, for moral values and guidance.  However, appeals to conscience in cases like these often result in an inability to resolve moral problems.  The consequence is chaotic existence, which has become the mark of our times.
This long essay is an attempt to clarify some of the uncertainty that surrounds the word conscience using the philosophical framework of St. Thomas Aquinas.