In English, the notion of "conscience" is often confused with "consciousness," words that share the same etymological roots in Latin. Generally, we might define "conscience" as that "little voice" in our head that tells us what's right and what's wrong. In today's episode, we consider how that notion of a private, internal conscience developed from a word that originally meant a "joint understanding" with others. We also look at the recent encyclical published by Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, which raises important questions about the nature of conscience—and of consciousness—in an era of technological change.

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Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

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