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- Conscience describes two things – what a person believes is right and how a person decides what is right. More than just ‘gut instinct’, our conscience is a ‘moral muscle’. By informing us of our values and principles, it becomes the standard we use to judge whether or not our actions are ethical.
ethics.org.au/ethics-explainer-conscience/
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17 hours ago · 4. Conscience Is a Priceless Gift from God. The conscience is a gift for your good and joy, and it is something that God—not your mother or father or anyone else—gave you. Consider your sense of touch. That sense is a gift from God that can function as a warning system to save you from great harm.
- I. Definition
- II. Controversies About Conscience
- III. Quotes About Conscience
- IV. Types of Conscience
- V. History of Conscience
- VI. Conscience in Pop Culture
Conscience is a faculty of the mind that motivates us to act morally—or at least according to our most deeply held values. Most say it is a form of intuition and uses emotion, although others have argued that it should be shaped by reason. It is a private experience, and a form of self-knowledge; from one’s conscience one can learn one’s own values...
Freedom of conscience is part of the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights, and the laws of many nations. Yet we have reason to question the idea. Former Nazi generals have told interviewers that they acted with a clear conscience, because their actions were sanctioned by their leadership and society. This would be consistent with ideas about...
Quotation #1:
This quote seems to represent the way most of us naturally think of conscience—assuming that conscience is always right, as if it’s a direct line to God or some other source of objective moral knowledge. This also implies that it is right to obey conscience even if opposes one’s social and legal environment. One the one hand, these could be incorrect and dangerous assumptions; on the other, we could never change injustice in our society, like Dr. King, without sometimes trusting conscience ov...
Quotation #2:
Bertrand Russel cuts to the heart of the problem with everyday notions about the sacred truth of conscience. People who were certain they knew the moral truth and followed their conscience have included members of the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusaders, the Nazis, and most terrorists. Such people did indeed invent hell! Quotation #3: This one speaks for itself!
There are no ‘types of conscience’ recognized by philosophers except ‘critical conscience’ which means the application of critical reasoning to ethical decisions. Many religious web-pages list their own types of conscience, in light of their beliefs.
Before cultural relativity and subjectivism came into vogue during the 20th century, conscience was considered a source of objective moral knowledge by almost everyone, however in different senses in different cultures. In ancient Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, knowledge of good and evil was thought to be the natural long-term result of practicing...
Example #1: Pinocchio
In this clip from the old Disney Pinocchio film, Jiminy Cricket gives the boy who would be human a lecture and song about conscience with the message “always let your conscience be your guide.” Although that message implies relying on intuitive conscience, it’s interesting that the Cricket first tries to explain something like ‘critical conscience’ to Pinocchio before giving up in confusion and falling back on a traditional Christian notion of conscience—resistance to temptation.
Example #2: Emperor’s New Groove
This scene from the Emperor’s New Groove nicely dramatizes one of the most popular conceptions of conscience in our society—the devil and angel on your shoulders. This colorful and compelling image seems to imply that true morality consists of righteousness. While following the one that “rocks” is the evil one. However, instead of emphasizing good vs evil, they both just confuse the guy and he ends up dismissing them both.
Mar 14, 2016 · In this case, the moral knowledge in question is typically understood in a relativistic sense: our conscience is the faculty through which the social norms of our culture or the norms of our upbringing are evoked and exert their influence on our moral psychology.
Conscience, a personal sense of the moral content of one’s own conduct, intentions, or character with regard to a feeling of obligation to do right or be good. Conscience, usually informed by acculturation and instruction, is thus generally understood to give intuitively authoritative judgments.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Nov 17, 2017 · Conscience describes two things – what a person believes is right and how a person decides what is right. More than just ‘gut instinct’, our conscience is a ‘moral muscle’. By informing us of our values and principles, it becomes the standard we use to judge whether or not our actions are ethical.
Nov 30, 2023 · Your conscience is the part of your personality that helps you determine right and wrong and keeps you from acting upon your most basic urges and desires. Your conscience is what makes you feel guilty when you do something bad and good when you do something kind.
Sometimes our conscience is like a sundial operating under moonlight. It gives a reading, but the wrong one! Letting our conscience be our guide is usually bad advice. God is our guide, and conscience is only one dimension of witness to God’s guidance, but not a witness in isolation (see Guidance). Conscience gives us a false reading when we ...
