Conscience is a certain moral tension, a person’s experience of words and actions. Moreover, the problem of conscience can affect not only a person’s own actions and words, but also the actions of someone else, and the meaning of the word conscience is distorted from one individual to another.
Definition and types
It is quite difficult to immediately determine what conscience is. The thing is that the problem of conscience is centuries-old and psychologists and philosophers of each period defined this word somewhat differently.
What does conscience mean from a psychological point of view: this is a quality of a person that indicates that he is able to bear responsibility for his actions and words. Philosophers define a sense of conscience as moral self-awareness, distinguishing between good and bad, and also motivating a person to do good deeds.
V. Dahl gave conscience the following definition: it is the inner consciousness, a secret corner of the soul, where lynching occurs over every action and phrase, dividing them into good and bad, as well as a feeling that can give rise to love for good and aversion to evil.
Honor and conscience are inherent in moral people who adhere to the principles of justice and life rules. If a person’s conscience gnaws at him, this means that he has committed an act that he himself cannot approve.
If she never torments a person, he is said to be soulless. So if it is impossible to take back the words and actions spoken, why is conscience needed, and is it needed at all, or are there motives and ways to get rid of conscience?
Concept in religion
In Christian terminology, this word consists of fellowship and message. This means what it means to live according to conscience in Christianity - to live, benefiting society, to live together with it. Deeply religious people often say that if our conscience torments us, it is the voice of God that condemns us for some unseemly deeds.
Why is it different for everyone?
When conscience torments, a person engages in self-examination and self-torture, reproaches and shames himself, replaying the action in his head again and again as a subject of reproach. Some people are not and never have been tormented by it because they do not realize that their actions are causing harm to someone.
In fact, having such moral feelings is characteristic of people raised according to a certain scheme of distinguishing between good and evil. By adulthood, a so-called standard is formed in their minds, by which they determine the coloring of their own and other people’s actions. This parenting pattern is very common: we often hear young children being told that picking leaves on trees is bad, but sharing toys is good.
But such upbringing can make a child happy in the future only if the parents’ meanings and definitions of good and evil have not been distorted. If these concepts were instilled in a distorted form or were not instilled at all, it is possible that in adult life a person lives without giving an account of honor and conscience.
What does it mean to have a conscience?
To the question: “Is conscience necessary?” One can only answer in the affirmative. A person’s conscience serves as a fair, but also merciless measure of his deeds. If your conscience gnaws, it means that what you did does not correspond to your own ideas about good or neutral actions.
If we imagine that honor and conscience are not inherent in any person on Earth, we can safely say that chaos will begin. Everyone will do absolutely random things: go and kill the offender, who for others is the breadwinner of the family and an adored relative, steal money from someone, perhaps the last, intended for food or treatment. After all, making an appointment and not showing up, insulting or hitting - all this would be universal, because no one would be able to say that these actions are disgusting and unfair to others.
Sigmund Freud described this quality quite briefly. He believed that it originates in infancy: the child depends on parental love and acts in accordance with their standard of good and evil, so as not to lose this love.
It follows from this that conscience appears precisely in childhood, and parents and the environment play an important role in its formation. Repeated studies have proven that a conscientious person becomes one whose parents did not beat him for misdeeds in childhood, but expressed their grief at his behavior. As an adult, this person is responsible for every word he says and does everything accordingly.
Tormenting conscience
This word has a lot of definitions, and among these definitions there is one stable one - tormenting and gnawing. What should a person who is tormented by his conscience do? First of all, be happy for yourself. This means that you clearly see the problem and know what you did and why you lost your peace of mind.
Sometimes frank conversations about a problem are needed. For example, parents, sisters and brothers, close friends, spouses - these are people who should accept you in any way, which means they will listen if you are tormented by your own conscience.
If the loss of balance is caused by deeds or words that hurt another person, you need to ask him for forgiveness. An accepted apology will be a real balm for a troubled soul.
Don’t try to drown out such feelings or define them in some other way, attributing them to fatigue or nervousness. If you have the honor to admit what you have done to yourself, life will become much easier.
A tormenting act is not always equivalent to the feelings experienced by the perpetrator. For example, some greatly exaggerate what they have done - this situation is well described in Anton Chekhov’s short story “The Death of an Official.” A person can simply drive himself into hysterics when there are no objective reasons for this.
The most effective thing is still dialogue with the offended person. Remember that a frank apology is not humiliation or infringement of pride, but shows you as a highly moral and educated person who can answer for his words and actions.
Differences from honor
Honor, conscience, guilt, duty - this is just a short list of terms and states that are often identified. Honor and conscience are quite close concepts, but they have certain differences, and fundamental ones.
The latter is how we measure our own actions in relation to others. This is a kind of internal judge of all words and actions that brought joy to someone, and grief to someone. In accordance with this, the soul becomes good and light, but otherwise, the conscience torments.
Honor is a measure of behavior towards oneself. There is a common expression: this is below my honor and dignity. This means that a person cannot act in a certain way without hurting his own feelings.
It is worth noting that honor comes with much greater responsibility. Honor is a series of strict rules and principles in which a person is brought up from childhood. This does not mean putting yourself above others, on the contrary, it means knowing your place among people and treating yourself more strictly than others.
Conscience is a kind of spiritual instinct that distinguishes good from evil faster and more clearly than the mind. He who follows the voice of conscience will not regret his actions.
In the Holy Scriptures, conscience is also called the heart. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ likened conscience to “ oku”(eye), through which a person sees his moral state (Matt. 6:22). The Lord also likened conscience to “ opponent,” with which a person must be reconciled before he appears before the Judge (Matt. 5:25). This last name indicates a distinctive property of conscience: resist our bad actions and intentions.
Our personal experience also convinces us that this inner voice, called conscience, is located beyond our control and expresses itself directly, apart from our desire. Just as we cannot convince ourselves that we are full when we are hungry, or that we are rested when we are tired, so we cannot convince ourselves that we have acted well when our conscience tells us that we have acted Badly.
Conscience in Scripture
The will of God becomes known to man in two ways: firstly, through his own inner being and, secondly, through revelations or revelations communicated by God and the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ and written down by the prophets and apostles. The first way of communicating the will of God is called internal, or natural, and the second - external, or supernatural. The first is of a psychological nature, and the second is historical.
The existence of an internal, or natural, moral law is clearly evidenced by St. Paul, saying: when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what is lawful, then, not having the law, they are a law unto themselves, for they show that the work of the law is written in their hearts (Rom. 2:14-15). And on the basis of this law, written in the hearts, written laws were formed among the pagan peoples, which served as a guide for public life and fostered moral freedom in each individual person. Although these morals and laws were imperfect, without them it would have been worse, since complete arbitrariness and licentiousness would have established themselves in human society. If there is a lack of care, people fall like leaves, says the wise one (Prov. 11:14).
Everyone’s conscience tells them about the presence of the natural law of morality in a person. Having spoken about the work of the law, written in the very nature of the pagans, the apostle adds: their conscience testifies(Rom. 2:15). Conscience has its basis in all three known psychic powers: knowledge, feeling and will. The very word conscience(to know, to know), as well as the usual expressions: conscience has spoken, conscience recognizes or conscience rejects - show that there is an element of knowledge in conscience. Further, the feeling in the conscience of joy or sorrow, peace or discontent and anxiety makes conscience akin to feeling. Finally, we express ourselves: conscience keeps me from doing this, or conscience forces me to do this, therefore, we attribute conscience to will. Thus, conscience is a “voice” (as is usually expressed) arising from a peculiar combination of all three mental abilities. It arises from the relationship of a person’s self-awareness to self-determination and his activities.
Conscience has the same significance for activity that logic has for thinking. Or as the inherent human sense of rhyme, tact, etc. - for poetry, music, etc. Next, conscience is something primitive, innate to man, and not derivative, imposed. It always testifies to man’s Godlikeness and the need to fulfill God’s commandments. When the tempter seduced Eve in paradise, her conscience immediately appeared on guard, announcing the impermissibility of transgressing God’s commandment. Eva said: We can eat the fruits of the trees, only the fruits of the tree, which is in the middle of paradise, God said, do not eat them or touch them, lest you die(Gen. 3:2-3). That is why the ancients spoke about conscience: est Deus in nobis, i.e. In conscience we feel not only the human, but also the higher-human, or divine, side. And according to the words of the wise Sirach, God has set his eye on the hearts of people (Sir. 17:7). This is the essence of the indestructible power and greatness of conscience in relation to human intentions and actions. You cannot bargain, negotiate, or enter into deals with your conscience: conscience is incorruptible. There is no need for reasoning and conclusions to hear the decision of conscience: it speaks directly. As soon as a person thinks of doing something bad, conscience immediately appears at his post, warning him and threatening him. And after committing a bad deed, conscience immediately punishes and torments him. It is not in vain that they say that it is not man who controls conscience, but conscience that controls man. A person is dependent on his conscience.
How does conscience work? By their actions, conscience is distinguished legislative And judging(punishing). The first is the scale for measuring our actions, and the last is the result of this measurement. Ap. Paul calls the legislative conscience indicating about the actions (of the Gentiles; Rom. 2:15). And elsewhere: I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bears witness to me in the Holy Spirit(Rom.9:1). But in St. Scripture says more about the judging conscience. So Adam after the Fall, Cain after fratricide, Joseph’s brothers after taking revenge on the innocent - they all experience torment in their conscience. 2 Samuel talks about broken heart, i.e. about a condemning conscience (chap. 24:10). The Psalms of David speak more than once about a similar human condition. The New Testament says about the scribes and Pharisees who brought a sinner to the Lord Savior that: they began to leave one after another, convicted by conscience(John 8:3). In the messages of St. Peter and Paul, in places about conscience, more is said about the judging conscience, i.e. rewarding or punishing.
What states of human conscience exist? Since conscience is a natural voice heard in the very nature of man, as a result it is in close connection with the entire state of the human soul, depending on its moral development - on education, lifestyle and history in general. This idea is confirmed by St. Scripture. The history of Revelation has as its task to reveal the law most clearly, and, moreover, in accordance with man’s own knowledge. Ap. Paul recognizes the gradual growth of moral wisdom in man and demands it when he says: Everyone who is fed with milk is ignorant of the words of truth, because he is a child; solid food is characteristic of the perfect, whose senses are accustomed to distinguish between good and evil(Heb. 5:13-14); and further: And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.(Rom. 12:2). The development and improvement of conscience depends both on the education of the mind and on the improvement of the will. Strict justice, in particular the love of truth and the coordination of practical actions with theoretical knowledge, are the main foundations of clarity, sharpness and liveliness of conscience (conscientiousness). And there are external auxiliary means for this: the instructions of parents, the voice and example of the best part of society, and most importantly - the Holy One. Scripture, which clearly and in all purity reveals moral truths and rightly denounces human vices.
If conscience depends on the general state of a person, mental and moral, formed under the influence of the environment, both an individual and entire nations, which is very often perverted, then for this reason the voice of conscience is heard by different people in completely different ways, sometimes contradictory . It is known from history that people sometimes commit the most cruel acts, even terrible crimes, citing the voice of their conscience. Let us recall, for example, the Inquisition, the custom of pagan peoples to kill weakly born children and decrepit old people, etc. And among us, often one with a clear conscience does something from which the conscience of another is indignant. Finally, in the same person, conscience can speak differently at different times. It follows from this that conscience does not manifest itself in the same way in everyone, that its voice can be true and untrue, and both to varying degrees. That's why ap. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians speaks of a weak or erring conscience, a conscience of idols, i.e. conscience that recognizes idols as real powers (1 Cor. 8:7,13). Consequently, the opinion of those who think that a person’s conscience contains “a complete and organized moral law, the same and always equal content” cannot be accepted, and therefore, in cases of error and moral corruption, he should only take a closer look at his conscience in order to understand his delusion, your perverted state and turn to a better path.
The history of the life of pagan peoples and their conversion to Christianity does not confirm this view. History shows both that not all nations have the same code of commandments, and that when converting pagans to Christianity, the matter was not limited to just reminding them of the contents of their conscience. A difficult and prolonged work took place in the entire being of the pagan, a continuous and persistent influence on his entire consciousness. That is why the missionaries’ struggle with pagan superstitions and morals is far from easy, as it would be if this theory about conscience were correct. But, nevertheless, this struggle is possible, it produces results, and the pagans convert to Christianity. And this is a sign that the opportunity is open for all people to correct their conscience and be guided by its correct and pure instructions. Every person is the image and likeness of God.
Truth or fallacy, certainty or doubtfulness (probability) - these are the properties of legislative conscience. We call the judging conscience calm or restless, peaceful or disturbing, comforting or painful. In St. In Scripture it is called a good, pure, immaculate conscience or an evil, vicious, defiled, burned conscience. Before the Jewish Sanhedrin, St. Paul testified that he lived with all good conscience before God until this day(Acts 23:1). Ap. Peter exhorts Christians to have a good conscience, so that those for whom you are slandered as evildoers may be put to shame by those who reproach your good conduct in Christ(1 Pet. 3:16 and 21). In the Epistle to the Hebrews, St. Paul expresses confidence that we have a good conscience because we want to behave honestly in everything(13:18). He commands to have sacrament in a clear conscience(1 Tim. 3:9). And I myself strive to have an immaculate conscience before God and people(Acts 24:16), he says about himself. In his letter to the Hebrews, the apostle calls the conscience evil or evil when he calls approach with a sincere heart, with full faith, sprinkling [the Blood of Christ], cleansing the heart from an evil conscience. (Heb. 10:22). In his letter to Titus, the apostle calls the conscience “defiled” when he speaks of people: their mind and conscience are defiled. They say they know God, but deny by deeds, being vile and disobedient and incapable of any good deed.(Titus 1:15). Burnt but in conscience the apostle calls those false speakers, through which in recent times some will depart from the faith, listening to seducing spirits and teachings of demons(1 Tim. 4:1-2). The burning sensation here signifies a painful consciousness of guilt.
By strength or energy, conscience is called decisive or meticulous. She is akin to a suspicious conscience. It is characteristic of persons prone to despondency and who do not trust the means of cleansing from sins. Under the influence of passions and the noise of the world, conscience is often hard to hear and becomes muffled. If you often drown out the voice of conscience, then it becomes quieter, conscience gets sick, dies, and such a process ends in the death of conscience, i.e. a state of dishonesty.
But, speaking about the state of lack of conscience, we do not understand the absence of the punitive power of conscience in a person, but only the absence of conscience, i.e. the trampling of all divine and human laws and rights, the withering away of all moral feeling. Of course, the storms of passions and the noise of this world can drown out the punitive voice of conscience. But even in this case, the judging conscience is reflected in the person. It then manifests itself in secret despondency, melancholy, melancholy, and a state of hopelessness. And when the passions and noise of the world subside (which happens throughout life, but especially before death), then an evil conscience attacks a person with all its fury. It then produces anxiety and fearfulness in a person, and a painful expectation of future retribution. Cain, Saul, Judas, Orestes can serve as models. So conscience is either a comforter or a tormentor.
We have given all the excerpts from the Holy Scriptures related to the human conscience. It remains to point out only one place in the message of St. Paul to the Corinthians; it reads like this: I mean conscience not my own, but another; for why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience? (1 Cor. 10:29). In these words, conscience appears to be an individual authority: this means that each person has a conscience only for himself. It follows from this that I must beware of raising the voice of my conscience to the level of a law for others and thus causing damage to my conscience. I must treat both my own conscience and the conscience of others with attention and leniency.
The nature of conscience
Conscience is a universal moral law
The presence of conscience testifies to the fact that, as the story goes, God, already at the very creation of man, inscribed His own in the depths of his soul. image and likeness(Gen. 1:26). Therefore, it is customary to call conscience the voice of God in man. Being a moral law written directly on the heart of man, it acts in all people, regardless of their age, race, upbringing and developmental level.
Scientists (anthropologists) studying the customs and customs of backward tribes and peoples testify that so far not a single tribe, even the most savage, has been found that would be alien to certain concepts of moral good and evil. In addition, many tribes not only highly value goodness and abhor evil, but for the most part agree in their views on the essence of both. Many, even wild tribes, stand as high in their concepts of good and evil as the most developed and cultured peoples. Even among those tribes in which deeds that are disapproved from the dominant point of view are elevated to the level of virtue, complete agreement with the views of all people is observed in everything else concerning moral concepts.
St. writes in detail about the actions of the internal moral law in people. apostle Paul in the first chapters of his letter to the Romans. The Apostle reproaches the Jews for the fact that they, knowing the written Divine law, often violate it, while the pagans “have nots(written) law, by nature they do what is lawful... They show(by this) that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as evidenced by their conscience and thoughts, which either accuse or justify one another.”(Rom. 2:15). App right there. Paul explains how this law of conscience sometimes rewards and sometimes punishes a person. Thus, every person, no matter who he is, Jew or pagan, feels peace, joy and satisfaction when he does good, and, on the contrary, feels anxiety, sorrow and oppression when he does evil. Moreover, even pagans, when they do evil or indulge in debauchery, know from an inner feeling that God’s punishment will follow for these actions (Rom. 1:32). At the upcoming Last Judgment, God will judge people not only by their faith, but also by the testimony of their conscience. Therefore, as the apostle teaches. Paul, and the Gentiles can be saved if their conscience testifies to God of their virtuous life.
Conscience has great sensitivity to good and evil. If man were not damaged by sin, he would not need a written law. Conscience could truly guide all his actions. The need for a written law arose after the Fall, when man, darkened by passions, ceased to clearly hear the voice of his conscience. But essentially, both the written law and the internal law of conscience say one thing: “As you want people to do to you, do so to them”(Matt. 7:12).
In daily relationships with people, we subconsciously lose more of a person’s conscience than written laws and rules. After all, you can’t keep track of every crime, and sometimes the law of unrighteous judges is “whatever the drawbar is: where you turned, that’s where it went.” Conscience contains within itself the eternal and unchangeable law of God. Therefore, normal relationships between people are possible only as long as people have not lost their conscience.
On maintaining a clean conscience
“Keep your heart above all else, for from it are the springs of life.”(Proverbs 4:23) With these words, Holy Scripture calls on a person to take care of his moral purity.
But what about a sinful person who has stained his conscience; is he forever doomed? Fortunately, no! The great advantage of Christianity over other religions is that it opens the way and provides the means to fullclearing conscience.
This path consists of repentantly surrendering your sins to the mercy of God with the sincere intention of changing your life for the better. God forgives us for the sake of His Only Begotten Son, who on the cross made a cleansing sacrifice for our sins. In the sacrament, and then in the sacraments of confession and communion, God completely cleanses a person’s conscience “from dead works” (Heb. 9:14). That is why he attaches such great importance to these sacraments.
In addition, the Church of Christ possesses that grace-filled power that makes it possible for the conscience to improve in sensitivity and clarity of manifestation. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God”. Through a clear conscience, God’s light begins to act, guiding a person’s thoughts, words and actions. In this blessed illumination, man becomes an instrument of God's providence. He not only saves himself and improves spiritually, but also contributes to the salvation of people who communicate with him (let us remember Saints Seraphim of Sarov, John of Kronstadt, Elder Ambrose of Optina and other righteous people).
Finally, a clear conscience is a source of inner joy. People with a pure heart are calm, friendly and friendly. People with a pure heart already in this life anticipate the bliss of the Kingdom!
“It is not the greatness of power,” argues St. John Chrysostom, - “it is not a lot of money, not the vastness of power, not bodily strength, not a luxurious table, not luxurious clothes, not other human advantages that bring complacency and joy; but this can only be the fruit of spiritual well-being and a good conscience.”
What is remorse?
Committing a sin for the first time, a person feels a certain [internal] conviction and experiences. Having committed the same sin again, he experiences less conviction, and if he... is inattentive and continues to sin, then his conscience hardens.
The devil often finds an excuse for sins, and instead of admitting: “I did it to trample my conscience,” she justifies herself: “I did it so that the Elder would not be upset.” He turns the tuning knob to a different frequency so that we don't see our wrongdoing. One woman, coming to her confessor for confession, sobbed inconsolably and repeated the same phrase: “I didn’t want to kill her!” “Listen,” the confessor began to reassure her, “if you have repentance, then God has forgiveness of sin. After all, He forgave the repentant David.”
Joys cover sin, drive it deeper, but it continues to work from the inside. Thus, a person tramples on his conscience and therefore begins to harden, and his heart slowly becomes salty. And then the devil finds an excuse for him in everything: “This is a trivial matter, but this is a natural thing...” However, such a person has no peace, because the disorder driven deep does not stop. He feels restless and lacks inner peace and silence. He lives with incessant torment, suffers and cannot understand the reason for all this, because his sins are covered from above, driven deep down. Such a person does not understand that he suffers from having committed a sin.
Conscience in psychology
Psychology studies the properties of conscience and its relationship with other mental abilities of a person. Psychology tries to establish two points: a) Is conscience a natural property of a person with which he is born, or is it the fruit of upbringing and is determined by the life conditions in which a person is formed? and b) Is conscience a manifestation of a person’s mind, feelings or will, or is it an independent force?
Careful observation of the presence of conscience in a person convinces us that conscience is not the fruit of a person’s upbringing or physical instincts, but has a higher, inexplicable origin.
For example, children discover conscience before any education from adults. If physical instincts dictated conscience, then conscience would encourage people to do what is beneficial and pleasant to them. However, conscience very often forces a person to do exactly what is unprofitable and unpleasant for him. No matter how the wicked may enjoy with impunity and no matter how good and praiseworthy people may suffer in this temporary life, conscience tells everyone that there is a higher justice. Sooner or later everyone will receive retribution for their actions. That is why for many people the most convincing argument in favor of the existence of God and the immortality of the soul is the presence of a voice of conscience in a person. 
Regarding the relationship of conscience with other forces of man, with his mind, feeling and will, we see that conscience not only tells a person about what is in itself good or bad in moral terms, but also obliges he must do good and avoid doing bad, accompanying good actions with a feeling of joy and satisfaction, and evil actions with a feeling of shame, fear, mental anguish. These manifestations of conscience reveal cognitive, sensory and volitional sides.
Of course, reason alone cannot consider some actions as morally good and others as morally bad. He tends to find one or another of our and other people's actions either smart or stupid, expedient or inexpedient, profitable or unprofitable, and nothing more. Meanwhile, something prompts the mind to contrast the most profitable opportunities with good actions, to condemn the former and approve of the latter. He sees in some human actions not only benefit or miscalculation, like mathematical calculations, but gives a moral assessment of actions. Doesn't it follow from this that conscience influences reason with the help of moral arguments, acting, in essence, independently of it?
Turning to the volitional side of manifestations of conscience, we observe that will itself is a person’s ability to desire something, but this ability does not command a person what to do. The human will, as long as we know it in ourselves and in other people, very often struggles with the demands of the moral law and strives to break out of the shackles that constrain it. If the volitional manifestation of conscience were only the implementation of human will, then in this case such a struggle would not exist. Meanwhile, the requirement of morality certainly controls our will. She may not fulfill these demands, being free, but she cannot renounce them. However, even failure to fulfill the demands of conscience by will does not go unpunished for her.
Finally, the sensual side of conscience cannot be considered as only a sensual ability of the human heart. The heart craves pleasant sensations and avoids unpleasant ones. Meanwhile, violation of moral requirements is often associated with strong mental anguish that tears apart the human heart, from which we cannot get rid of, no matter how much we wish and try. There is no doubt that the sensory ability of conscience cannot be considered as a manifestation of ordinary sensitivity.
Penance: Medicine for a sick conscience
Films about conscience:
The bill is non-evening. From September 17. Faith and conscience
About conscience
How to awaken your conscience?
In our constantly changing world, there are fundamental concepts, losing which means losing yourself... One of these eternal and unchanging concepts is our conscience.
What kind of quality of the soul is this, deep, pure, eternal, called conscience? Wikipedia says that this concept refers to a person’s ability to exercise moral self-control; an inner voice that dictates to an individual what to do and what not to do. This spiritual quality helps to connect the mind and emotions together, and is expressed in the form of emotional experience.
What is conscience? The definition found in official literature is somewhat dry for such a deep moral phenomenon, isn’t it?
From a psychological point of view
Many famous psychologists have repeatedly addressed the topic of morality in their works. Thus, Eric Berne believed that there are three human ego states:
- Adult.
- Parent.
- Child.
The adult is responsible for logical thinking and reason; The Child is for interest, exploration and entertainment, but the Parent... The Parent is the voice of conscience, the moral principle of a person.
Some psychologists call the feeling of guilt innate in humans, some believe that morality is a part of the mind, and some consider it a derivative of the development of civilization.
So this is a fundamental concept, interesting and complex. This is a sense of moral responsibility for one’s own behavior and everything that happens in the human world.
The meaning of the word “conscience”, which is offered to us by various official sources, is a boring thing. How can we clarify the definition of this abstract psychological term in simple words?
A very interesting version of a cheerful ten-year-old girl who recently read Pinocchio. In her opinion, conscience is a Jimminy cricket that you accidentally swallowed, so it got stuck in your head... As you can see, there are many versions, there are even quite funny ones, but only the person himself can answer what morality and ethics mean to him. ..
Related concepts and phrases
Remorse and shame should not be confused. They have the following important differences:
- Shame is a public phenomenon, while guilt is deeply personal.
- Remorse appears as a result of developed moral responsibility, and shame is the result of the influence of society.
- Guilt is a condemnation of one's actions, and shame is a condemnation of one's personality.
What then is called a “clear conscience”? According to psychologists, a feeling of clear conscience arises when a person is confident in his complete and unconditional sinlessness. This is where the problem of the relativity of moral concepts arises. What is normal for one may not allow another to sleep peacefully at night. Indeed, morality is a more than complicated thing...
What is it like to live according to your conscience so that your soul is always pure? The answer is simple. You should try to follow the moral code recognized in the place where you live. Sound cynical? Alas. As already mentioned, morality is a very relative thing...
Living according to your conscience means observing the internal laws of honor, a code that is terrible to break, otherwise the moral support under your feet will disappear and you will fall into lawlessness and emptiness...
In this case, there is only one piece of advice: listen to your heart and hope that it will help you make the right choice. Author: Irina Shumilova
“You have no conscience!”, “I wish I had a conscience!”, “Conscience is the best controller.” "Remorse." We have heard these and many others more than once or twice in our lives. So what is conscience? Why do we need it? How do we know whether we have it or not, and how not to lose it?
Conscience is a kind of regulator of our relationships with people around us. At the same time, everyone has their own regulator. A person’s conscience is a purely individual concept, there is no standard in it, it cannot be measured and said: “My conscience is greater than yours.” It all depends on how capable a person is of regulating his moral and ethical behavior, the norms of which are different for everyone and depend on their environment, personal qualities, and life experience. At the level of feelings, conscience helps us evaluate the wrongness or correctness of actions or deeds.
Conscience: conscience in life examples
Conscience has a strong influence on our lives and can lead to serious moral suffering (especially for emotional and sensitive individuals) as a result of committing a bad or even simply wrong act towards someone. For example, we can be rude to a passenger in transport due to our irritation or lack of upbringing. A so-called “conscientious” person will apologize for his inappropriate behavior immediately or will experience “pangs of conscience” for a long time, but for an “unscrupulous” person rudeness is the norm, nothing can be done about it. We can be rude to our parents, who never tire of teaching us about life, but then we realize that we were wrong, because from childhood we were taught that being rude to elders is bad. In many situations in which we become participants every day, conscience protects and warns us from committing actions that we will later regret, as if giving an alarming signal about the fallacy, incorrectness or inappropriateness of this or that action.
What is conscience: sources of conscience
The foundations of conscience are laid in us by our parents at an early age (at 3-5 years), and the process of its formation is called upbringing. At the same time, the most important role here is played not by verbal stories about what is bad and what is good, but by the visual behavior of the parents and their reaction to the actions and actions of the baby. To cultivate a conscience in a child, you need to work hard. So, if you say that lying is bad, and then you yourself tell a lie, what can you expect from a child who believes that everything his parents do is the norm for him? If you teach a child to respect the adult generation, and then take it out on each other or on others, will the beginnings of conscience bear good fruit? If your child does something wrong, you don’t need to immediately shout: “You can’t do that!” and punish him for his crime. Explain clearly why exactly it is impossible, what negative consequences this may result in (“If you touch the hot surface of the iron, you will burn your fingers, it will be very painful, you will not be able to play with toys, draw”, “If you do not pick up the toys from the floor and If you don’t put them in place, someone will step on them and they will break,” etc.).
Shame, shame and conscience
When we condemn someone, we can say that we are shaming the person, trying to awaken his conscience. The feeling of shame is an indicator of moral behavior. It is believed that it has such a synonym as shame. This is not entirely true. Shame is actually a certain state of our soul, self-condemnation. Shame is a state of mind imposed on us, one might say, a provocation. Someone insulted us, told an unpleasant story about us, and we took it upon ourselves, we feel disgraced (and it doesn’t matter whether they told the truth or made it up). And here the person begins to gnaw at us more deeply than conscience.
What is conscience: varieties and forms of conscience
The science of morality, in particular conscience, is called ethics. Ethics classifies conscience according to:
2. Form of manifestation (individual, collective).
3. Intensity of manifestation (suffering, muted, active).
Forms of conscience are also represented by a fairly wide range of manifestations: doubt, painful hesitation, reproach, confession, shame, self-irony, etc.
Introduction
1. The concept of conscience
1.1 Conscience and shame
1.2 Types of conscience according to Fromm
2.1 The task of conscience
2.2 Functions of conscience
3. Imperativeness of morality
4. The importance of conscience in pedagogy
5. Functioning of conscience
Conclusion
Bibliography
IN conducting
Conscience is a person’s ability to critically evaluate his actions, thoughts, and desires. At the same time, a person realizes and worries about an unfulfilled duty, unworthy behavior, which he “assesses” himself, and feels guilty.
Conscience is a person’s internal controller.
Moral values guide a person in his behavior. This turns out to be possible not because it is beneficial or pleasant for a person to take them into account in his decisions and actions. These values function in such a way that they influence the will of a person.
Moral values are always proclaimed in a form that indicates the need for their practical implementation in actions. Following moral values is perceived by a person as a duty.
If a person is calm when he fails to fulfill his duty, he is immoral, he is called “unscrupulous” - he has not learned, the most important moral guidelines have not been accepted by his soul. An unscrupulous person is restrained only by external control, otherwise he will cause harm to others. Such people show their boundless malignity: they steal, lie, mock others without a twinge of conscience.
Psychologists have found that in families where there is strict external control and cruel punishments, there is a greater chance of raising an unscrupulous person. He will go towards his goal, neglecting all moral principles, not paying attention to the suffering of others. At the same time, families where trusting relationships prevail raise conscientious children who have a high level of internal self-control and moral reflection.
People who grow up in an atmosphere of attention and affection deeply internalize moral norms and ideals, they sympathize with others, perceive their suffering as their own and strive not to do evil.
1. The concept of conscience
Conscience is a person’s moral consciousness, the ability to distinguish between good and evil, prompting a person to make a conscious choice in favor of good.
When they talk about freedom of conscience, they mean the right of a person to profess any religion or not to profess any. The concept of conscience reflects the close connection between ethics and psychology.
Conscience is a trait of a person’s spiritual appearance, expressing his ability to internally evaluate his behavior, his feelings, as well as the actions and opinions of other people from the standpoint of good and evil.
Poor development of conscience in a person who, realizing that he has caused material or moral damage to someone, does not blame himself for this, does not feel shame, dissatisfaction with himself and the desire to improve the matter.
Conscience presupposes an individual's awareness of his duty and responsibility to himself and other people. In a difficult situation, conscience forces a person to behave in such a way as not to deserve reproach from close people and the entire people.
Conscience is an emotional phenomenon; it manifests itself through deep negative experiences, self-reproaches, reproaches, through a person’s anxiety and concern about the morality and humanity of his behavior.
Conscience is our inner voice, which either accuses us from within and oppresses us, or gives us a feeling of joy and satisfaction for what we have done. This is our internal controller and judge, incorruptible and impartial. We cannot convince ourselves that we acted well and correctly when our conscience denounces us that we acted badly.
Famous Russian philologist D.N. Ushakov in his dictionary describes the concept of “conscience” as follows: conscience is an internal assessment, an internal consciousness of the morality of one’s actions, a sense of moral responsibility for one’s behavior. And in the dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Ephron: conscience is a person’s moral consciousness, expressed in the assessment of one’s own and others’ actions, based on a certain criterion of good and evil.
According to V. Dahl: conscience is moral consciousness, moral sense or feeling in a person; inner consciousness of good and evil; the secret place of the soul, in which approval or condemnation of every action is echoed; the ability to recognize the quality of an action; a feeling that encourages truth and goodness, turning away from lies and evil; involuntary love for good and truth; innate truth, in varying degrees of development.
So, we have found out that conscience is a certain substance that is capable of appealing to our feelings and emotions, will and reason, encouraging us to act in accordance with what we consider good and right.
1.1 Conscience and shame
Indeed, the experience of shame and the feeling of conscience are related, but they should be distinguished.
A conscientious person, as he improves, places increasingly higher demands on himself. A clear conscience is the normal state of a person fulfilling a moral duty; it is a reward for moral efforts. Domestic scientist of the 20th century. G. Bandzeladze believes that without a clear conscience, virtue would lose all value.
Conscience is intuitive, it perceives what is not yet there, therefore it must “work” before committing an act. Experiences after an offense will already be a shame. Conscience is activated only when a person knows moral standards. If he does not know them and is “morally innocent,” then his conscience cannot speak.
A person’s conscience is essentially independent of the opinions of others. In this, conscience differs from another internal control mechanism of consciousness - shame . Shame and conscience are generally quite close.
Conscience is called a "moral principle" or a "structure of internal discipline." One can support T. Florenskaya’s position in the difference between shame and conscience: shame is before another for oneself, conscience is based on compassion for another because of oneself, as the culprit of suffering.
Shame also reflects a person’s awareness of his (as well as those close to and involved in him) inconsistency with some accepted norms or expectations of others and, therefore, guilt. However, shame is completely focused on the opinions of other people who can express their condemnation of the violation of norms, and the experience of shame is stronger, the more important and meaningful these people are for a person. Therefore, an individual may experience shame - even for random, unforeseen results of actions or for actions that seem normal to him, but which, as he knows, are not recognized as such by the environment. The logic of shame is something like this: “They think this way about me. They are wrong. And yet I am ashamed because they think so about me.”
Shame is an emotional state or a deep human experience that arises as a result of the discrepancy between one’s behavior and accepted norms and the person’s awareness that he acted dishonestly or ridiculously (traditional interpretation of dictionaries and reference books).
The logic of conscience is different. Conscience is called a "moral principle" or a "structure of internal discipline." One can support T. Florenskaya’s position in the difference between shame and conscience: shame is before another for oneself, conscience is based on compassion for another because of oneself, as the culprit of suffering.
And this was understood historically quite early.
Democritus, who lived at the turn of the 5th and 4th centuries. BC does not yet know the special word “conscience”. But he demands a new understanding of the shameful: “Do not say or do anything bad, even if you are alone. learn to be much more ashamed of yourself than of others.” And in another place: “You should be ashamed of yourself as of others, and equally not do anything bad, whether it remains unknown to anyone or everyone knows about it. But most of all one should be ashamed of oneself, and the law should be inscribed in every soul: “Do not do anything indecent.”
Conscience is intuitive, and a person who “has it” knows how to feel it and relies on it in his choices. Such a person always acts thoughtfully, honestly, without causing harm to himself or the world around him.
We say about him “a conscientious person”, “lives according to his conscience”.
Conscience cannot be taught. Conscience is the personal experience of a mature person. In the process of raising a child, we give him only the prerequisites for feeling his conscience. Each person, growing up, goes through his own path of improvement.
1.2 Types of conscience according to E. Fromm
Psychoanalyst E. Fromm believes that there are two types of conscience - authoritarian and humanistic.
Authoritarian conscience expresses our submission to external authority. With an authoritarian conscience, we uncritically accept the commands of some external force, religious or social, and carry out its will because we are afraid. Submitting to an authoritarian conscience out of fear of punishment, a person follows commands that are far from his own interests.
The authorities pursue their own selfish goals and use individuals only as a means, forcing them into submission through the formation of mechanisms of authoritarian conscience. If a person deviates from the orders of the authorities, he feels guilty before it and suffers, fearing subsequent punishment. But as soon as people understand that power has lost its power and cannot harm them in any way, they immediately lose their authoritarian conscience and no longer submit to what they were timid and bowed to yesterday.
Humanistic conscience, according to Fromm, is the voice of the person himself, the best principle in him, capable of self-development. Humanistic conscience does not allow people to be slaves, to meekly submit to other people's interests, or to waste their lives in vain. She calls for self-realization, for embodying the best of your strengths and capabilities in order to build your life in harmony with other people. Sometimes the voice of conscience sounds indirectly through the fear of old age or death, when a person suddenly realizes that he has failed and has not fulfilled his duty to himself.
