Ethics

Scito te Ipsum

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Peter Abelard

c. 1138

Also known as Ethica, this treatise introduces one of the most original moral theories of the medieval period: that sin consists not in the act committed, nor in the desire felt, but solely in the consent of the will to what one knows to be wrong. "Know Thyself" — the Socratic inscription Abelard takes as his title — becomes a demand for rigorous self-examination, because moral character is constituted entirely by interior intention. Abelard argues that the same act can be sinful in one person and meritorious in another depending solely on the quality of their consent, placing conscience at the foundation of ethics centuries before modern moral philosophy.