conscience. The word now denotes the capacity for judging the rightness of actions, whether in general or in particular. Christians are agreed that it is unique to man and that its effectiveness is increased by experience and through grace.

Western medieval theologians differed as to whether the source of moral discernment lay in the affections and will, or in practical reason. The Reformers reacted against the idea of an uncorrupted natural power to discern good and evil untouched by the Fall and emphasized the dependence of the Christian conscience on faith. More recent thinkers have been divided on the reality and authority of conscience. Some have tended to discard the concept and speak only of moral judgment; others (e.g. Bp. J. Butler) have seen in conscience a kind of moral sense in the exercise of which man becomes aware of a Being higher than himself. According to I. Kant conscience is the awareness of the universal claim of the moral dictates of reason (the Categorical Imperative). Religion is the recognition of this claim as the will of God, and it is by following the dictates of conscience that man realizes his independence of conventional and social codes. Modern psychology regards conscience as the activity of the super-ego, which is formed in childhood and represses drives that are socially unacceptable. Nevertheless, a critical attitude to social pressures, combined with the sense that man's freedom implies some sort of ultimate autonomy, has meant that the notion of conscience has seemed useful when an individual's sense of value conflicts with those imposed by the State or society. Moral theologians have stressed the need for conscience to be informed by attention to the teaching of Scripture and the Church; conscience thus informed is to be followed.

124. Conscience

1. Aidos ancient Greek personification of conscience. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 14]
2. Clamence haunted by guilt because he failed to respond when aware that a girl had jumped or fallen into the Seine. [Fr. Lit.: Camus The Fall ]
3. Cricket, Jiminy dapper mite guides the callow Pinocchio. [Am. Cinema: Pinocchio in Disney Films, 32–37]
4. Elder Statesman, The Lord Claverton ponders the shame of his past, personified by ghosts of his victims. [Br. Drama: T. S. Eliot The Elder Statesman in Magill IV, 262]
5. Godunov, Boris Tsar suffers pangs of conscience for having murdered the Tsarevitch in order to seize the throne. [Russ. Drama and Opera: Boris Godunov ]
6. Karamazov, Ivan guilt for wishing his father’s death culminates in hallucinatory conversations with the Devil. [Russ. Lit.: Dostoevsky The Brothers Karamazov ]
7. Solness, Halyard plagued by awareness of his past ruthlessness and the guilt of defying God’s will. [Nor. Drama: Ibsen The Master Builder in Magill II, 643]
8. Valdes and Cornelius Good Angel and Evil Angel; symbolize Faustus’s inner conflict. [Br. Lit.: Doctor Faustus ]
9. Wilson, William his Doppelganger irrupts at occasions of duplicity. [Am. Lit.: “William Wilson” in Portable Poe, 57–82]

conscience sense of moral awareness or of right and wrong. The concept has been variously explained by moralists and philosophers. In the history of ethics , the conscience has been looked upon as the will of a divine power expressing itself in man's judgments, an innate sense of right and wrong resulting from man's unity with the universe, an inherited intuitive sense evolved in the long history of the human race, and a set of values derived from the experience of the individual. Psychologists also differ in their analyses of the nature of conscience. It is variously believed to be an expression of values differing from other expressions of value only in the subject matter involved, a feeling of guilt for known or unknown actions done or not done, the manifestation of a special set of values introjected from the example and instruction of parents and teachers, and the value structure that essentially defines the personality of the individual. As a practical matter, the consciences of different people within a society or from different societies may vary widely.

conscience a clean conscience is a good pillow there are a number of traditional ways of expressing the notion that a clear conscience enables its possessor to sleep soundly, even, as a well-attested variant claims, through a thunderstorm (as in Shakespeare's Macbeth, ‘I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, And sleep in spite of thunder.’ The saying is recorded from the early 18th century.
conscience makes cowards of us all awareness of guilt makes it difficult to face a situation resulting from it. The saying, recorded from the early 17th century, comes originally from Shakespeare's Hamlet, ‘Conscience does make cowards of us all.’ In Richard III (1594), one of the murderers of Clarence, asked ‘Where's thy conscience now?’, replies, ‘I'll not meddle with it—it makes a man a coward.’
prisoner of conscience a person detained or imprisoned because of his or her religious or political beliefs; the term is recorded from the early 1960s, and is particularly associated with the campaigns of Amnesty International.

conscience The modern understanding of conscience as a faculty by which past actions or dispositions are assessed or future actions evaluated, leading to experiences of guilt or of innocence, is not that of the Bible—though that is not to say that the Bible is unaware of these feelings (cf. 1 Sam. 24: 5).

In the NT human beings are regarded as morally responsible and ‘conscience’ is the painful reaction felt when one's ordered human nature is violated. Conscience therefore is something from which a Christian should be free (Rom. 13: 5); it comes into operation after a wrong deed has been initiated. If there is no such reaction (‘conscience’), then either the deed is not wrong, or habit or environment has so corrupted the subject that ‘conscience’ fails to be activated. ‘Because of conscience’ (Rom. 13: 5) means ‘to avoid the pains of conscience’.

This conscience could lead to excessive scruples on the one hand, or be so insensitive on the other that weaker Christians are hurt (1 Cor. 10: 28).

Conscience

The moral dimension of human consciousness, the means by which humans modify instinctual drives to conform to laws and moral codes.

Sigmund Freud viewed the conscience as one of two components of the superego , the other being the ego-ideal. In this scheme, the conscience prevents people from doing things that are morally wrong, and the ego-ideal motivates people to do things that are considered morally right. This theory suggests that the conscience is developed by parents, who convey their beliefs to their children. They in turn internalize these moral codes by a process of identification with a parent.

Other psychologists have proposed different theories about the development of the conscience.

See also Moral development

Further Reading

Weissbud, Bernice. "How Kids Develop a Conscience." Parents' Magazine (December 1991): 156.

con·science / ˈkänchəns/ • n. an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior: he had a guilty conscience about his desires. PHRASES: in (good) conscience by any reasonable standard; by all that is fair: they have in conscience done all they could. on one's conscience weighing heavily and guiltily on one's mind. DERIVATIVES: con·science·less adj.

conscience XIII. — (O)F. — L. conscientia privity of knowledge, consciousness, f. conscīre know or be privy with (another or oneself); see CON- and SCIENCE.
So conscientious XVII. conscionable conscientious, scrupulous, XVI. f. †conscions, var. of conscience, + -ABLE; now familiar in unconscionable, conscious †privy to a thing with another or within oneself; aware of. XVII. f. L. conscius, f. CON- + *sci-, base of scīre know.

Conscience: see ETHICS (CHRISTIANITY).

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