Hinder

by Hannah Curtis

Created on: June 02, 2008   Last Updated: June 03, 2008

The term conscience', although a commonly and widely used term, has many definitions and variations. As a result I believe that one should exercise caution when discussing or dealing with it, for the issues surrounding conscience are by no means simple. The well known phrase, Always let your conscience be your guide', heard by many of us as children is in my opinion one to be wary of.

This article will explore a psychological view of conscience:

As children our actions generally stem from obeying those in authority due to their instinctive, internalised super-ego, which controls our behaviour by the use of guilt. Children as a whole follow the urging of their super-ego, and act out of obedience, regulating how they behave to suit their parent's wishes. For children are very sensitive and attuned to their parents' behaviour towards them. They soon learn that when they disobey their parents, they experience what they perceive to be withdrawal of love, as well as guilt. This super-ego is seen by psychologists to be the starting point in the development of the conscience.

Our conscience generally develops and comes into play as we mature into adults; however the super-ego still has a significant role. A child needs to reach the maturity in order to recognise the distinction between super-ego and conscience. This can take time and is by no means an easy transaction. We know this to be true when at the time when we are approaching adulthood and are torn between trusting in our own decisions or just letting our parent's voice in our head tell us how to act.

With our conscience we choose for ourselves what is right or wrong, it is independent from beliefs, commands or wishes of others. We follow our conscience in accordance with the significant values which we personally choose to believe in, instead of just feeling compelled to act due to guilt or command.

Conscience can be divided into three parts; the capacity of having one, the process, leading to the choice of action. It is inter-related with at the very least two of the eight distinguishable features which constitute a person, for it helps to define who we are as a person, a moral agent.

We are not objects, but are in fact historical subjects, this means we are responsible for our actions and are called to follow and develop our conscience, learning from mistakes made in the past. We all share an innate, instinctive capacity within us from which we can distinguish between good and evil.

Throughout our adult lives we go through a process of educating and informing the conscience by personal experience and moral reflection, in order to end with right moral judgements. This is the stage of the formation of conscience which explains the disparity between consciences. The deftness of one's conscience depends on the depth at the informing stage of the process; as a result whether or not our conscience helps or hinders us in our moral decisions varies from person to person.

From this therefore it can be seen that our conscience is by no means infallible as it depends on each individual flawed human being to develop it. It is perfectly possible that we can make the wrong choice, while still believing we have followed our conscience, this is known as an erroneous or immature conscience. This occurs when the process between the capability and judgement is rushed and is not as thorough as it should for a responsible mature judgement, resulting in mistakes and misunderstandings. Thus in this sense our conscience can hinder our decision making.

It is too reliant on the individual's upbringing, culture and personal experience to be an authoritative source of morality. Also the whole concept of conscience can be also open to misuse, for it can be used to justify or excuse anyone's action.

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