What is meant by 'crisis of conscience'? Narrate one incident in your life when you were faced with such a crisis and how you resolved the same.

Inner versus outer demands

Conscience says one thing while a superior, friend or self-interest says another, so every option carries a moral cost.

Dilemma, not temptation

It is a true crisis when two goods, such as loyalty and honesty, conflict, not a mere temptation between right and wrong.

Felt as dissonance

Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance explains the guilt it causes until action matches belief.

The situation

As class representative keeping the attendance that decided exam eligibility, I was asked by a close friend, short of the cut-off after his father's illness, to add a few entries.

How I reasoned

Kant's test of universalisation showed that if every representative altered records for friends, the register would mean nothing, yet abandoning him was not the only alternative.

What I did

I refused to falsify but helped him submit his father's medical papers to the Head of Department under the condonation rule and shared my notes; his shortage was condoned and he sat the examination.