Conscience and Conscientiousness

Kant's Principle of Pure Practical Reason does not merely forbid some action, nor merely adjudicate between refraining and not refraining from some action, it itself creates the possibility of refraining from some action.  Likewise, the Practical Principle of Sufficient Reason does not merely require the selection of the better of two alternative--it creates one.  Furthermore, the immediate object of Kant's Principle is the operation of Reason itself, i. e. his Principle is a Law that governs the formation of Maxims.  Likewise, insofar as the PPSF creates a better alternative to given conditions, it can apply to its own operation, which is part of those conditions.  In other words, as requiring of itself that it do better, the PPSF is an expression of Conscientiousness, in contrast with one of Conscience, which is typically conceived as effecting a constraint on some behavior.  Thus, while Kant's Principle can superficially be conceived as an articulation of Conscience, it, more precisely, is an expression of Conscientiousness, the distinction between which corresponds to the tension in his doctrine between conventional Deontological Morality, and Rational Ethics.