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mi-vo-to · W236

mivoto · conscience; self-goodness-knowing; inner moral sense · ✅

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Domain Ethics / Self
Class entity / cognitive state
Type compound
Register standard
First use ORD-001-H (S832): la-pa-su ra lo-mi-vo-to — "Career, in-group conformity, and deference to authority were more powerful than conscience." (Browning, Ordinary Men)

Definition

mi (self/speaker) + vo (goodness/value) + to (knowledge/pattern) = self-goodness-knowing = conscience. Right-branching parse: mi modifies [vo-to] (goodness-knowing) = self's goodness-knowing = the inner awareness of one's own moral standing. Conscience in Tonesu is compositionally transparent: it is the application of to (knowledge) in the vo (goodness) domain directed reflexively at mi (self). Not a separate faculty but self-applied moral knowledge. First used in contrast with pa-su (W235, circumstances): la-pa-su ra lo-mi-vo-to = circumstance overpowers conscience — the situational vs. moral-inner-sense axis. Third mi-compound in the corpus after lo-mi (S823, self-as-patient) and pa-mi (W110, speaker's location).

mi (primitive: self/speaker), vo (primitive: goodness/value), to (primitive: knowledge/pattern), go-su (W235: circumstances — what overrides conscience), pa-mi (W110: speaker's location — parallel mi-compound), vo-ne (W118: righteousness — related moral quality)


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