The Coerced Conscience

This book uncovers the threat of conformity to liberty of conscience, past and present.

Amy Gais (Author)

9781009372008, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 December 2023

166 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 1.3 cm, 0.374 kg

'Freedom of conscience is a malleable, contested, and often misunderstood concept. By recovering the ideas of its most ardent defenders and most vocal critics of the early modern period, Amy Gais' beautiful new book powerfully reminds us of how central freedom of conscience is for the capacities of citizenship, civic trust, and individual authenticity.' Glory M. Liu, Assistant Research Professor, Johns Hopkins University

The Coerced Conscience examines liberty of conscience, the freedom to live one's life in accordance with the dictates of conscience, especially in religion. It offers a new perspective on the politics of conscience through the eyes of some of its most influential advocates and critics in Western history, John Milton, Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, and Pierre Bayle. By tracing how these four philosophers, revolutionaries, and heretics envisioned, defended, and condemned this crucial freedom, Amy Gais argues that liberty of conscience has a more controversial history than we often acknowledge today. Rather than defend or condemn a static, monolithic view of liberty conscience, these figures disagreed profoundly on what protecting this fundamental principle entails in practice, as well as the threat of hypocrisy and conformity to freedom. This revisionist account of liberty of conscience challenges our intuitions about what it means to be free today.

1. A New Kind of Politics? 2. John Milton and Expressive Conscience
3. Thomas Hobbes and Instilled Conscience
4. Baruch Spinoza and Conscientious Speech
5. Pierre Bayle and Tormented Conscience
6. The Politics of Conscience.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA]