How often someone asks to “have a conscience” or wonders if it tortures us from certain actions. However, what is conscience? It is unlikely that anyone can confidently give an interpretation of this concept. Dictionaries cannot give a completely clear explanation, but it is worth at least trying to understand this issue.
What is conscience?
What is conscience? Often the answer to this question is given as follows - it is the ability of someone determine their own moral obligations, engage in self-control and evaluate their actions. In simple terms, this is a way to express your moral self-consciousness.
The manifestation of conscience is divided into two types. Firstly, these are certain actions that a person performs in connection with one or another moral background. Secondly, these are the emotions that he experiences in relation to certain actions - a feeling of guilt, or the so-called "remorse".
Almost everything related to this issue is shrouded in mystery. For example, how did people get a conscience in general? Some scientists believe that this happened as a result of evolution, while others adhere to the intuitive theory.
Evolutionary theory is based on the fact that over time people noticed that their selfish actions harm those close to them, and for them they are blamed or punished. Good deeds, on the contrary, are approved. Some scientists believe that this was gradually assimilated by a person to an innate level, although not everyone agrees with this.
Intuitionism
The basis of this theory is that conscience is perceived as a property of a person given to him by nature itself. In this case, the fact that the degree of development could change and improve, in connection with a variety of conditions, is not denied, but the "embryo" is considered a fact.
Innateness explains the unconditional nature of conscience, however, adherents of this theory also interfere with the question of higher powers, God, so such an explanation cannot be considered purely scientific. It retained the word "theory" only as a name, as a tribute to traditions.
Description of conscience
Having roughly described what conscience is and what it means, scientists turned to other aspects of this issue. In particular, they raised the psychological problem, the allocation of species and manifestations.
In almost everything, people's opinions differ. Some believe that there are no manifestations of conscience in the animal world, while others hold a completely opposite opinion, and even find examples for this.
Separately, the definition conscience of childhood. This period helps to consider how the self-consciousness of human actions is formed. The key ingredient is shame. Some scholars even believe that shame is the only manifestation of conscience. Whether true or not, this feeling is seen in children and it is evident that it is present to varying degrees. This is usually influenced by upbringing and environment.
Trying to understand what conscience means, one should not assume that it is inherent only in highly developed people. Many scholars would like to see savages and low cultured tribes as having no shame or guilt, but even the oldest writings of travelers easily prove otherwise.
Many peoples and tribes value shame much more than the inhabitants of megacities, and this despite the fact that they go completely naked. Simply put, culture and the degree of moral consciousness are practically not connected in any way.
Conscience and criminology
Separately, the question of what conscience is from the point of view of criminology is widely considered, and this is not surprising. It is hard to believe that it exists among thieves or serial killers. However, Despin's decomposition of this type of self-consciousness has shed some light on its nature.
In this sense, the conscience of the crowd, the influence of the masses on the consciousness of one person, as well as psychological changes in savage people and degenerate peoples are distinguished.
Today, scientists and philosophers continue to actively discuss the issue of the emergence of conscience and its development. Some believe that this self-awareness does not change with age or the arrival of another society, but changes occur in the mind, and he, in turn, able to influence conscience. She tries to break through, sending a person an unbearable feeling of guilt, shame and remorse.
To live in conscience, in harmony with nature - you can often hear such a recommendation, and in general, everything seems to be very clear here. But if you try to figure out what exactly this means, then many questions arise. Suppose, with the recommendations to “live in harmony with nature”, everything is more or less clear, although here, too, sometimes there are various misunderstandings that sometimes do not fit in the head.
For example, a person may claim that he does not eat meat, but in fact it turns out that, in his understanding, fish, seafood, and sometimes even chicken, do not belong to meat. They seem to grow on a tree. Therefore, in the matter of life "in harmony with nature" - there are also many misunderstandings. However, in general, everything is clear here - do not harm living beings. The concept of "harm" is also a relative concept, and everyone puts something of their own into it, but we will not delve into it.
Much more interesting is the question of what is conscience? And what does it mean to “live according to conscience”? Remember how in childhood? You would commit some impartial act, and your parents would immediately ask a rhetorical question in such a stern voice: “Do you have a conscience?” And you stand and do not know what to answer. Intuitively, you feel that you can’t answer “No”, but it’s also stupid to say “Yes”, because at that age you don’t really know whether you have this conscience or not. And in general, what kind of animal is this - conscience? Here you stand, silent, bored ... And the angry parent continues to pour rhetorical questions, tells you something like: “Am I talking to the wall?” This is where you don't feel right at all. And it’s not up to the question whether you have a conscience - it would be to get out of such a mess and get off with a couple of hours in one of the corners of your home.
However, the years go by. The understanding of good and evil is changing. And sooner or later we begin to understand at some deep level what conscience is. No, we, perhaps, will read it in the dictionary, and the teacher at school will tell us something about conscience, but it's not that, it's all, as they say, from the mind. And the understanding of conscience must come from the soul, from the heart. And it is at some deep level that we begin to distinguish between what it means to "live according to conscience" and what it means - on the contrary. This true feeling, this true knowledge is in each of us. You will not read about it in books, this understanding either exists or is hidden under a layer of our obscurations and delusions.
The first time conscience manifests itself in deep childhood, we certainly do not know that this is what it is - conscience. But we are starting to feel it. This is the feeling when, for example, after kicking a harmless and defenseless kitten, we then feel bad in our souls all day long. And at night we can't sleep. We do not yet understand what is happening to us, but it is important that this is happening.
Years go by... And each of us goes our own way. Someone in himself crushes this conscience. He kicks her like a stray dog every time she tries to bark or bite us at the moment when we commit an unworthy act. And someone, on the contrary, cultivates this conscience in himself, begins to listen to it, begins to synchronize his whole life with her voice. And such a conscience becomes the natural state of a person, his natural understanding of what is good and what is bad.
This is not the understanding that is sometimes gleaned from some smart books. A “bookish” understanding of conscience often becomes just a dogma, and such a person is, as they say, “one size fits all” ... Such a person instead of conscience has some bookish-religious formula that divides this world into black and white. And everything that does not look like black is white, and everything that does not look like white is black. But this world is diverse, and there are many shades in it. Therefore, such a position in relation to him is fundamentally wrong. This is what is important to understand.
The meaning of the word "conscience"
You can talk for a long time about what conscience is not. But what does this word - conscience mean? What is conscience? What is its definition? What is the origin of the word "conscience"? In the word itself - the key to unraveling this mysterious phenomenon, which can neither be seen, nor touched, nor studied from the point of view of science.
The word "conscience" consists of two words: "with" and "news". It means "common message". And the question arises: joint with whom? There can be many versions, but as one of the options - joint with the Universe, with all living beings in it. And the word "message" can be interpreted as "knowledge". Thus, the word "conscience" means "sharing knowledge with the universe."
Knowledge about what? Yes, everything is about the same - about good and evil, about moral behavior, about the world order - the list can be continued endlessly, but all these are just verbal formulas, mental concepts, philosophy. And conscience, as has already been said, is not a bookish formula, but a true unchanging quality of the human soul.
Sometimes they say about a person: "No shame, no conscience." And you can meet an even more interesting option, when a person is even proud of it. At one time there were very fashionable T-shirts with the inscription “No shame, no conscience. Nothing extra". One would like to add - "no brains." In fact, in modern society, conscience has long become a ballast for the majority. Because it contradicts those generally accepted concepts that are actively implanted in modern society. For example, will conscience be an assistant on the way to a person who has adopted the life paradigm “take everything from life” or was inspired by the slogan “go over their heads”? The question is rhetorical.
To follow such ideas, the conscience must be crushed in early childhood. And, unfortunately, this is the way most people go today. What result will they get? It's easy to guess. As a rule, approaching old age, such people either "see the light", but often it is already too late, or even worse - even in old age they do not accumulate any life wisdom. Such people become grumpy old people who hate everyone and everything and blame the world around them for their problems. And the problem is that initially a dead-end path of development was chosen - "no shame, no conscience."
Proverbs about conscience
Our ancestors knew how important conscience is in our life and reflected this knowledge in very eloquent proverbs:
- Conscience without teeth, but will bite.
- For conscience and honor - at least take your head off.
- In whom there is shame, in that there is conscience.
- Conscience is the eye of the people.
- He has shame - like a hair on a stone.
- If you lose money, you can earn. And if you lose your conscience, you will know trouble.
- The dress is black, but the conscience is white.
- You hide it from a person, but you cannot hide it from conscience.
- Conscience is not a story: you can’t hand it over to the archive.
- Without arms, without legs - a cripple, without a conscience - half a person.
- If you lose your conscience, you won't buy another one.
- Conscience does not let me sleep.
- Shame under the heel, and conscience under the sole.
- A good conscience is hateful to an evil one.
- When the conscience was handed out, he was not at home.
- An evil conscience is worth an executioner
Is conscience necessary in the modern world?
As mentioned above, in modern society, people are imposed with such tendencies and motivations that are simply vitally incompatible with conscience. Therefore, a person’s choice, frankly, is small - either discard such a “ballast” as conscience and “take everything from life”, as he is advised from all possible screens, or choose the path of the “white crow” and, preserving his conscience, donate reputation as an “adequate” and “normal” person. What choice to make - everyone decides for himself. Everyone sets their own priorities and, which is equally important to understand, everyone gets exactly the result that they deserve in the end.
If a person lives according to his conscience, he creates reasons for doing the same with him. This is what the golden rule of morality says: "Do to others as you would like to be treated to you." Because this is how everything works in this world - everything that we broadcast to the world - exactly the same amount we receive in return.
Therefore, to cultivate a conscience in oneself or to crush it in oneself is the choice of each person. But it is important to understand the consequences of this choice. Nobody wants suffering. Nobody wants to be miserable, sick, despised. But people by their behavior create causes for their own suffering. How to avoid it?
There is only one way - from early childhood to cultivate a conscience. But this does not mean that if this is not done from childhood, then nothing can be corrected. It's never too late to do good deeds. Therefore, at any time you can change the vector of your development. The main thing is to have a sincere desire. And if this desire exists, it is important to awaken this very conscience in the depths of your soul.
Try to remember those first childhood experiences when you did something bad. Remember how you were afraid to upset your mother with bad deeds or how you were ashamed when you rudely answered someone or treated someone unfairly.
Conscience is the natural state of every person, and in childhood it manifests itself in everyone without exception. And only then society begins to polish us, and if we show weakness and adapt to the generally accepted destructive tendencies, our conscience begins to speak out less and less. But we ourselves crushed it in ourselves. And the task of each person is to awaken this conscience in himself again.
Why does conscience preserve and protect universal human values? In fact, conscience is a guarantee of a harmonious life in this world. All good deeds and all worthy deeds are performed by those people who have cultivated a conscience in themselves. And all immoral deeds, all evil is committed on earth by those who have suppressed this conscience, the natural state of a person.
Conscience is, in fact, the only thing that leads a person to perfection. This is the only thing that allows him to retain his human nature. The only thing that distinguishes him from an animal. Therefore, cultivating conscience in oneself is the only way worthy of the title of Human. And the lack of conscience inevitably leads to degradation. Because if a person does not have a deep understanding of what is good and what is bad, then he will inevitably indulge his animal instincts, which, in fact, are very strong in us, and only conscience allows us to control them. And if there is no conscience, then there are no “brakes”. What happens to a car without brakes? Think for yourself.
One of the qualities of the human personality (properties of the human intellect), which ensures the preservation of homeostasis (the state of the environment and one's position in it) and is due to the ability of the intellect to model its future state and the behavior of other people in relation to the "bearer" of conscience. is one of the products of education. According to conscience - a category of ethics that characterizes the ability of a person to exercise moral self-control, independently formulate moral duties for himself, demand their fulfillment from himself and make a self-assessment of the actions performed; one of the expressions of the moral self-consciousness of a person (in many European languages the word "conscience" etymologically means "joint knowledge"; in Russian it comes from the word "know" - "know"). association block. Due to the fact that conscience is a property of the individual, its "content and quality" essentially depend on the culture that a person possesses (both ethnic and individual).
Definitions, meanings of the word in other dictionaries:
Social Psychology. Dictionary under. ed. M.Yu. Kondratiev
Conscience - the ability of a person to exercise moral self-control, independently formulate moral duties for himself, demand from himself their fulfillment and evaluate the actions performed; one of the expressions of the moral self-consciousness of the individual. WITH....
A large dictionary of esoteric terms - edited by d.m.s. Stepanov A.M.
(Russian, joint message, generalized knowledge). 1. Feeling and consciousness of moral responsibility for one's behavior and actions to oneself, to other people, society, moral principles, views, beliefs. 2. In occultism, the manifestation of criteria in the individual ...
Philosophical Dictionary
(joint knowledge, to know, to know): the ability of a person to realize his duty and responsibility to other people, to independently evaluate and control his behavior, to be a judge of his own thoughts and actions. “The work of conscience is the work of a man, which he leads ...
Philosophical Dictionary
The ability of a person to exercise moral self-control, to independently form moral duties for himself, to demand from himself their fulfillment and to make a self-assessment of the actions performed. S. can manifest itself not only in the form of a reasonable awareness of the moral ...
Philosophical Dictionary
(Greek syneidesis, lat. conscientia) - usually interpreted as a person's ability to distinguish between good and evil, as an inner voice that tells us about moral truth, about higher values, about our dignity. A person not only "has a conscience", but "he himself has a conscience" (S. Fagin)....
Philosophical Dictionary
An ethical category that expresses the ability of a person to exercise moral self-control, to determine from the position of good and evil the attitude towards one's own and other people's actions. makes its assessments, as it were, regardless of practical interests, however, in various manifestations, the conscience of a person ...
Philosophical Dictionary
A category of ethics that expresses the ability of a person to exercise moral self-control, to determine from the standpoint of good and evil the attitude towards one's own and other people's actions, lines of behavior. S. makes his assessments, as it were, regardless of the practical. interest, but in reality in various ...
Philosophical Dictionary
The concept of moral consciousness, inner conviction of what is good and evil, consciousness of moral responsibility for one's behavior; expression of a person's ability to exercise moral self-control on the basis of norms and rules formulated in a given society ...
Conscience is called a certain moral tension, a person's experience for words and deeds. At the same time, the problem of conscience can affect not only one'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
Determining what conscience is is not easy at once. The thing is that the problem of conscience is centuries-old and psychologists, philosophers of each period defined this word in their own way.
What does conscience mean from a psychological point of view: this is a quality of a person that indicates that he is able to take responsibility for his actions and words. Philosophers define a sense of conscience as a moral self-consciousness that distinguishes between good and bad, and also encourages a person to do good deeds.
V. Dahl gave conscience such a definition - it is an inner consciousness, a secret corner of the soul, where lynching takes place 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 rules of life. If the conscience gnaws at a person, 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 return the spoken words and actions, 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 believing people often say that if conscience torments, it is the voice of God that reproaches us for some unseemly deeds.
Why is it different for everyone?
When conscience is tormenting, a person engages in self-digging and self-torture, reproaches and shames himself, again and again scrolling through the act in his head, as a subject of reproaches. Some people are not and never have been tormented by it, because they do not realize that they are harming someone by their actions.
In fact, to have such moral feelings is characteristic of people brought up according to a certain scheme of distinguishing between good and evil. By adulthood, a so-called measure 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 tearing leaves off trees is bad, but sharing toys is good.
But such upbringing can make a child happy in the future only if the meanings and definitions of good and evil have not been distorted by the parents. If these concepts were instilled in a distorted form or not instilled at all, it is possible that in adult life a person lives without giving an account to honor and conscience.
What does it mean to have a conscience?
To the question: “Is conscience necessary?” can only be answered in the affirmative. A man's conscience serves as a just, but also a ruthless measure of his deeds. If your conscience gnaws, it means that what you have done does not correspond to your own ideas about good or neutral deeds.
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 completely 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, destined for food or treatment. After all, making an appointment and not showing up, insulting or hitting - all this would be ubiquitous, because no one could say that these actions are disgusting and unfair to others.
Sigmund Freud briefly described this quality. 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. Multiple studies have proven that a conscientious person becomes one whose parents in childhood did not beat him for misconduct, but expressed their grief at his behavior. In adulthood, this person is responsible for his every word and does everything accordingly.
Tormenting conscience
There are a lot of definitions for this word, and among these definitions there is one stable one - torturing and gnawing. What to do to a person who is tormented by conscience? First of all, be happy for yourself. This means that you clearly see the problem and know what you were doing 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 are people who should accept you as anyone, which means they will listen if your own conscience tormented you.
If the loss of balance is caused by deeds or words that hurt another person, you need to ask his forgiveness. An accepted apology will be a real balm for a troubled soul.
Do not try to drown out such feelings or define them in a different 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 sensations experienced by the perpetrator. For example, some greatly exaggerate what they have done - such a situation is well described in Anton Chekhov's short story "The Death of an Official". A person can simply bring himself to hysteria when there are no objective reasons for this.
The most effective is still a dialogue with an offended person. Remember that a frank apology is not a humiliation or an infringement of pride, but shows you as a highly moral and well-mannered person who can answer for his words and deeds.
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.
Lastly, we measure our own actions in relation to others. This is a kind of inner judge of all words and deeds that brought joy to someone, and grief to someone. In accordance with this, the soul becomes good and easy, otherwise the conscience torments.
Honor is the measure of behavior towards oneself. There is a stable 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 imposes a much greater responsibility. Honor is a set 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.
In our constantly changing world, there are fundamental concepts, to lose which means to lose 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 denotes a person's ability to moral self-control; an inner voice that dictates to a person how to 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 the official literature is somewhat dry for such a deep moral phenomenon, isn't it?
From the point of view of psychology
Many well-known psychologists in their works have repeatedly addressed the topic of morality. So, Eric Berne believed that there are three ego-states of a person:
- Adult.
- Parent.
- Child.
The adult is responsible for logical thinking and reason; The child is for interest, research 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 a person, some believe that morality is part of the mind, and someone considers 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 various official sources offer us, is a boring thing. And how to clarify the definition of this abstract psychological term in simple terms?
The version of a cheerful ten-year-old girl who recently read Pinocchio is very interesting. In her opinion, conscience is Jimmy's cricket, which 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 morality mean specifically for him. ..
Related concepts and phrases
Do not confuse remorse and shame. They have the following important differences:
- Shame is a public phenomenon, while guilt is deeply personal.
- Remorse of conscience 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 act, and shame is a condemnation of one's personality.
And what then is called "clear conscience"? According to psychologists, a feeling of a clear conscience arises when a person is confident in his complete and unconditional sinlessness. It is here that such a problem as the relativity of moral concepts appears. What is normal for one person may not let another sleep well at night. Indeed, morality is a more than complicated thing ...
And how is it - to live according to conscience, so that the soul is always pure? The answer is simple. You should try to follow the moral code recognized in the place where you live. Sounds cynical? Alas. As already mentioned, morality is a very relative thing ...
To live according to conscience means to observe 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 advice: listen to your heart and hope that it will help you make the right choice. Author: Irina Shumilova
