Human VAluesHuman VAluesHumanities 02Humanities 02

Chapter 4Chapter 4

The Role Of ConscienceThe Role Of Conscience

• What is a conscience? Conscience is a special sense, a moral sense that is innate in human beings.

• Conscience cannot be defined in terms of what it is. It can only be defined in terms of what it does or how it occurs.

• Conscience may be defined as the faculty by which we determine that we are guilty of a moral offense.

Conscience and ShameConscience and Shame• We know our conscience has judged

us harshly when we feel a sense of shame.

• What is Shame? The painful emotion arising from the consciousness of something dishonoring, ridiculous, or indecorous (vulgar, tasteless, indecent, and in bad taste), in one’s own conduct or circumstances.

ShameShame• Popular psychologist regard it as a sign of

emotional instability. Probably Rogers because he would say that shame is never appropriate; instead, the proper, healthy emotion is always “self-acceptance.”

• Roger’s relativity theory spread to millions of people.

• The time for celebration is not when people lose their sense of shame, but after having lost it, manage again to regain it.

The Shapers of ConscienceThe Shapers of Conscience• Two forces that are essentially

outside our control are 1. Natural endowment2. Social conditioning

Along with moral choice, shape conscience

Natural EndowmentNatural Endowment• A person’s temperament and

intelligence play a considerable role in shaping the total personality.

• The person with a practical intelligence (inclined to action as opposed to speculation).

Social ConditioningSocial Conditioning• Conditioning is the most neglected and

most important shaper of the conscience.• Definition:Conditioning is the myriad

(enormously large numbers) effects of our environment: the people, places, institutions, ideas, and values we are exposed to as we grow and develop.

• We are conditioned first by our early social and religious training from parents.

Moral ChoiceMoral Choice• Children’s choices are not fully

conscious acts but mere assertions of will that express their inherited traits or imitation of others behavior.

• Only in later childhood do we develop the ability to weigh alternatives and make reasoned moral choices.

A Balanced View of A Balanced View of ConscienceConscience

• It is not an infallible moral guide.• Conscience is the most important single

guide to right and wrong an individual can have.

• When circumstances demand an immediate moral choice, we should follow our conscience.

• When you have the time to reflect on the choice we should analyze the issue critically and consider that a different choice might be better.

Some DefinitionsSome Definitions• Ethnocentric environment is one in which

the group (race, gender, color, culture, special value system, etc.) believes it is superior to others. Results: less tolerant of others.

• Ethnocentric people as children show an inability to deal with complex situations.

• Culpability moral responsibility or blame