There are a number of elements in the natural supremacy of conscience that help us to understand the nature of its authority.
Since Butler held that virtuous actions are those in conformity to the nature of the agent and vicious ones not in conformity according to Sturgeon "the doctrine of natural authority of conscience is entirely superfluous" (Sturgeon, 316).
Consequently Butler can be seen to be arguing that when we take a survey of all that belongs to human nature (N1) we discover that conscience has natural supremacy (N3) in a united hierarchy (although see Section Five for Butler's claim that self-love is also a supreme principle).
At one point he speaks of "the tradition of abolitionists and religious reformers, of Catholic conscience and natural rights, of Lincoln and the Declaration".
It's easy on the conscience: Most natural gas is domestically produced.
The more inward faith of Protestantism, for example, established a perpetual internal conflict between natural impulses and religious conscience.
Medieval Christians felt it necessary to reject what they called Stoic fatalism, but notions of conscience and natural law had clear connections with Stoic thought.
Conscience as "natural" or "objective" will thus articulates the (moral) demands that the human being makes of himself, the pursuit of which determines his moral character, now properly so called.
For example, Reid's defense of his second Principle 2 includes discussion of the way in which God has "excellently fitted" our conscience, reason, natural instincts and bodily appetites to the benefit of the species.
On the other, Edwards argues (against, e.g., Hutcheson) that most conscientious and other regarding behavior is, indeed, a form of self-love and that, in any case, acts motivated by rational self-love, conscience, or natural other regarding instincts such as parental affection or pity aren't genuinely virtuous.
