This question concerns not only philosophers and psychologists. This question is also asked by ordinary people who are not alien to the concept of morality. Let's try to figure out what conscience is and where are its sources? Conscience is in simple words.
A man is born. He is surrounded by family and caring people. Fill the baby's world with boundless love. The child does not yet know what is good and what is bad.
He feels genuine care for him. And he tries with all his might to repay his parents with the same love. And as you grow older, also with good behavior.
And, if suddenly, the baby did something wrong and he was shamed. He will be very worried about the lost trust of the people he loves.
After committing a bad deed, the child is visited by a feeling of shame and fear of being punished. And already in this case we can confidently say that conscience touched the little man’s heart.
Where else does a child learn to be conscientious? In the game, of course! For a child, play is a world in which he learns to live and communicate. In playing with peers or older children, the baby learns to be honest and tolerant.
Learns to love and empathize. Tries to find a way out of various situations, defend his opinion and conduct a dialogue.
The child grows up, his inner world changes, his attitude towards others changes. He already evaluates his own and other people’s actions from the perspective of his own, albeit small, but already own life experience .
And conscience already plays the role of a strict and incorruptible internal judge in the life of a teenager. And this judge will persistently scratch the teenager’s soul at the very first moral lapses.
How and when will this happen?
It's hard to say. However, we can confidently say that conscience, in simple words, will not oversleep and will not collude .
Every parent doesn't want their child to be happy. And how to do it? How to make sure that their beloved child can overcome all the barriers of adult life without difficulties?
The answer is simple. Educate and educate, and above all, by example of your own relationships. After all, you must agree that in families where love and mutual understanding reigns between parents, children grow up happy and confident.
A reliable family support for a teenager is the key to successful growing up. And a child who grows up in a loving family is unlikely to do anything out of the ordinary .
Photos from pictures yandex.ru
And he will evaluate his own actions through the regulator of his moral behavior, which is called conscience.
Each age has a different concept of conscience. Preschoolers feel shame or fear of punishment. High school students have worries and a heightened sense of justice.
And in an adult, remorse appears when he missed the opportunity to do something. Something really positive and important: “Why didn’t you tell me?”, “Why didn’t you help?”, “Why didn’t you come?”
However, for different ages, conscience invariably consists of the concepts: decency, honesty, love, kindness and openness .
It is impossible to say unequivocally: a person is born with a conscience or not. Only one thing can be said affirmatively - conscience is instilled only by education and constant work on oneself.
Second argument
In the story “Poor Liza” N.M. Karamzin demonstrated the story of the tragic love between Liza and Erast. A poor peasant woman and a rich nobleman fell in love with each other, their feelings were bright and sincere. However, at one point, Erast’s love for Lisa cooled, he stopped seeing her every day, and then went to war altogether, leaving Lisa alone. Soon the girl saw Erast, and he confessed to her that he was marrying another woman. This revelation and the betrayal of her lover caused Lisa to commit suicide. Erast, having learned about this, feels guilty. Until the end of his days, he considers himself involved in this tragedy. The hero's conscience does not allow him to be a happy person. The narrator notes that Erast was unhappy until the end of his life.
Conscience is, in simple words, that special feeling
which distinguishes us from animals . This is the moral basis of man. Only those who have a conscience will be able to judge themselves. Conduct an internal dialogue with yourself, act as both a defender and an accuser.
It’s interesting whose position is closer to the term “conscience,” a pessimist or an optimist. In my opinion, it is closer to healthy pessimism, since optimism is such that it will pull everything that is possible, or maybe not, into its favor.
The modern world literally terrorizes people with calls to remain optimistic in all life situations. Based on the postulates of positive thinking, a huge industry of trainings, courses, and various self-development programs has grown.
People who tend to have less than positive perspectives feel uncomfortable in the company of motivated colleagues. Meanwhile, in our survival it is negative experience that is decisive .
Photos from pictures yandex.ru
Recently, psychologists have doubted the effectiveness of an artificial cloudless mood. After all, maintaining it is very expensive. And we thought about the constructive role of healthy pessimism.
First argument
The central character of V. P. Astafiev’s story “The Horse with a Pink Mane,” Vitka, commits a rather vile act: he eats all the collected strawberries and fills the container with grass so that it seems that there are a lot of berries. In order for Sanka, with whom Vitka was picking berries, not to tell the hero’s grandmother anything, he decides to steal the rolls from her and give them to Sanka.
Having deceived his grandmother twice, Vitka experiences pangs of conscience. The main character realizes that he did something wrong. Vitka cannot sleep because all this time he compares himself with a real criminal. The boy's conscience does not allow Vitka to keep a secret from his grandmother, so he decides to tell about the deception in the morning.
However, Vitka does not tell her grandmother about the deception, and she sells the mug with strawberries, after which she independently finds out about her grandson’s act. All this time Vitka feels guilty. This suggests that the main character is a conscientious boy who understands that he did wrong.
What is defensive pessimism?
This technique is used unconsciously by many, but it can easily be practiced as a tactical technique. This works most effectively in cases of natural tendency towards pessimism .
When a person imagines negative scenarios before an upcoming difficult test, he invests in a program to combat difficulties. And unexpected turns do not come as a surprise to him. While the optimist is struggling with unpleasant surprise, the pessimist is already solving the problem .
The essence of defensive pessimism as a psychological technique is to talk through all possible obstacles. Which may arise in connection with the upcoming test.
It is advisable to exaggerate these scenarios. As a result, instead of blind confidence, a person receives a constructive attitude and readiness for the unexpected.
It should be noted that this method is precisely tactical in nature and works to solve short-term immediate problems. Imagining negative outcomes in the case of, for example, a serious illness is destructive.
A similar approach can be useful for overcoming the consequences of psychological trauma. Talking and writing down the details of the incident is much easier and more useful. Rather than trying unsuccessfully to get everything out of your head .
Ownership price
Any person begins to feel remorse when he commits certain actions that are not customary to do in his family. From this we can conclude that conscience is a kind of instinct that serves a person when it comes to his guilt and innocence.
When a person loses his sense of balance, he makes one movement or another in order not to fall. Likewise, when there is remorse, a person commits certain actions in order not to lose the right to belong to his community. Be it the parental family, the work team, the state. Although these actions may contradict or even harm his personal life.
But we cannot live without conscience. It prevents us from going into an animal state and stimulates us to do the right thing. Precisely on the right things, and not on the “good” ones.
Pessimism and business
The widespread idea of a great leader corresponds rather to the image of a pessimist. What makes a positive person: stinginess with emotions, seriousness, skepticism.
This opinion is true in most cases. Since such positions require the most complete and objective analysis of the situation, and not the construction of illusions.
Resilience to stress is one of the main qualities required in business. A pessimistic assessment of prospects makes a person less sensitive to a tense situation.
After all, he remains indifferently calm and evaluates the information received . And he doesn’t go into shock, which is very productive.
Perhaps a wary and distrustful colleague is not so pleasant at first glance. But awareness and preparedness for any surprises. And this distinguishes constructive pessimists. They will definitely receive a worthy assessment in a difficult moment.
Spiritual conscience
There is another conscience - a spiritual one, which is much larger in action and meaning.
How does it manifest itself? In Life Orders. For example, if a relative is expelled from a family for his bad deeds, the Life Orders, in the person of spiritual conscience, begin to even out this “injustice.” In the new generation of the family, this excluded person “returns,” or rather, his then unaccepted and unlived feelings return. They are inherited by a person born later.
Strange things begin to happen. A child is born into a young family who begins to live a “double” life, bearing the burden of feelings for himself and for “that guy.” This can be clearly seen in the practice of family constellations. One can only guess what the fate of this child will be. Often such people begin to suffer from split personality or schizophrenia. By the way, schizophrenia is considered a disease of the whole family, and not of one specific person.
Conscience
The Jews did not have the word “conscience.” There was conscience itself. It's impossible without her. But there was no word. All shades of moral states have traditionally been expressed by variations on the theme of “fear of God.” The pagans, who did not have such meaningful phrases associated with the One, looked for their own adequate terms.
Vasily Polenov. Christ and the sinner. 1888
Jews could be disdainful of the very idea that successful spiritual quests were possible outside Israel. Their chosenness and long-term storage of the truth in solitude best contributed to the development of a sense of religious arrogance. But spiritual pride, multiplied by contempt, and an a priori conviction of someone’s futility and uselessness are bad comrades. The word “conscience” is proof of this.
And in Greek, and in Russian, and in English, and probably in many other languages, this word is constructed the same way. It contains the idea of co-presence, co-existence. There is a certain voice in me that, in essence, is not mine. Sounding within me, but not being a part of me, this voice reacts to events occurring in the moral field. He is incorruptible, this voice. If something happens against his will, he immediately begins to sound. Moreover, it is beyond human power to silence him. This voice is capable of execution and torment, it is capable of consoling and giving inner bliss, sometimes in the midst of physical torment. The former pagans who knew God began to call this voice “the Voice of God.” And even former Christians who renounced God (even crying, even laughing) called him “internal commissar” (Furmanov, for example).
The very appearance of the term is associated with the Stoic school of philosophy. And the term turned out to be so successful, it so masterfully revealed one of the burning secrets of inner life that it firmly entered the Holy Scripture where it was necessary to address not the Jews, but the representatives of the Hellenistic world.
Here Paul says about the Gentiles that “the work of the law is written in their hearts, which their conscience bears witness
and their thoughts, now accusing, now justifying one another” (Rom. 2:15).
The Apostle of the Gentiles teaches that the goal of preaching is “love from a pure heart and a good conscience
and unfeigned faith" (1 Tim. 1:5).
He says that “to the pure all things are pure; But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but their mind and conscience are defiled” (1 Titus 1:15).
Pavel has the most such places. This is explained both by the apostle’s close acquaintance with Hellenic wisdom and by the need to communicate with the flock in a language they understand. Other New Testament writers are more dependent on traditional Hebrew terminology. Their Hebrew language is classical and shaped by the psalms of David and the speeches of the prophets. An example of such speech is the words of John the Theologian: “If our heart condemns us, how much more will God, because God is greater than our heart and knows everything” (1 John 3:20). Inner life is usually described by the states of the heart, this main organ of knowledge of God and the source of moral movements.
The only time John uses the word “conscience” is when he tells the story of a woman caught in adultery. This story is so unique that it is worth dwelling on.
Those who sin like this woman are ordered by the law to be stoned. In practice, such execution did not overtake every adulterer or adulteress. In the worst times, when deception and violence, idolatry and adultery multiplied immensely, if the law had been strictly observed, almost the entire people would have had to be stoned. But to speak out loud against the commandment given by Moses was to sign one’s death warrant. Most naturally, for the purpose of self-preservation, they expected to hear from Christ: “As it is written, do so.”
If these words had been spoken, they would have sounded in terrible contrast against the background of the entire teaching of the Savior about the cleansing power of repentance and mercy for the fallen. And Christ doesn’t say anything right away. He remains silent and does not even look at the newcomers, bending towards the ground. The Lord writes something with his finger on the dust, and, who knows, it is not the dust from which man is created that He is thinking at this time. But now, raising his face, the Savior speaks briefly and commandingly: “He who is without sin among you, be the first to throw a stone at her.” And again, bending low, he wrote on the ground” (John 8:8).
This is where conscience comes into its own. She was silent until Christ spoke. When His voice reached human ears, His voice came to life in the depths of the soul.
Convicted by their conscience, people who recently demanded execution begin to leave. And the elders are the first to leave. This detail is surprising, since, having passed through the stormy years of youth, having abandoned much of the world due to their advanced years, having grown old studying the Scriptures, these elders could comfortably believe in “their own righteousness.” But no! Conscience came to life in them first, because for conscience all the events of a person’s life happened today
and there is no statute of limitations for sins and crimes.
The people leave silently, and when Christ again raises his face, He sees before Him only one woman, whose life and death had just depended on His one word. "Woman! Where are your accusers? Nobody judged you? - asks the Lord. And hearing in response: “No one, Lord,” he says: “And I do not condemn you; go and sin no more” (John 8:10–11).
***
We so often look for direct instructions. We are so greedy for sharp, like the whistling of a rod, words “yes” and “no”. Once again, when we approach someone with the words: “Don’t be fussy. Be direct. Are you for or against,” let’s remember this piece of the Gospel. It contains the answer, or rather, it contains a creative approach to finding the answer. This creative approach is simple: “Ask your conscience. Listen to her."
Let us also note that the woman’s pardon was due to the fact that those who condemned her were not sinless. It is the commonality of sinful experience, found in the depths of the heart, that forces us to hold back our anger, close our lips, and humble ourselves. We are different on the outside, but we are in the same trouble on the inside. And if Simeon the New Theologian or another holy man similar to him in his prayers calls himself guilty of all unnatural passions, then this is not due to the sinful facts of life. This is from the depth to which his praying mind descended. There, in the depths, he saw himself united with all human nature and felt the sins of all mankind as his own.
***
So, we, as soon as the conscience awakened by God speaks in us, refuse to consider ourselves more righteous than anyone else. That's why we are able to forgive. But the words of Christ: “Neither do I condemn you,” were born of a different experience.
Christ forgives us not because He Himself is a sinner. There is no sin in Him, and He does not need to take the beam out of His eye in order to then help His neighbor to part with the speck. Christ forgives and has mercy solely out of love, which, to be honest, is completely incomprehensible to us.
Love in Christ does not seek reciprocal gratitude. Until now, after the Cross and Resurrection, He endures attacks against Himself, ridicule of Himself, blasphemy against Himself.
His love does not depend on the feeling of blood, on family affection or anything else earthly. His love is not passionate, not excited, not exalted. Knowing how to love and being Love, outwardly He is royally calm.
Our love, selfish, hysterical, waiting for reciprocity, sensitive to insults, exhausted over time, is not even worthy of being called love against the background of the love of Christ.
He forgives us because He loves us, and not because He Himself is to blame.
***
Now that, while meditating on the Blessed Savior, we have briefly given the mind the opportunity to fly up and soar in the heights with outstretched wings, we need to descend to the ground again. You need to go down into the thick of everyday events, in the midst of which the eye reacts to light, the skin to changes in temperature, the ear to sound, and the conscience to any event related to morality. Sometimes this voice is as quiet as a whisper, and sometimes it seems intrusive, like a buzzing insect. But the worst state is when he becomes silent. This is a state of internal death, and the Apostle Paul calls such people who are dead from within “false talkers, seared in their conscience.”
"(1 Tim. 4:2).
Ideally, this voice is the voice of Christ Himself, Who, “when He brings out His sheep, goes before them; and the sheep follow Him, because they know His voice
"(John 10:4).
In touch - Antarctica
“There is a stereotypical opinion that an ordinary radio amateur sits with headphones, uses old tube equipment and broadcasts dots and dashes,” says Leonid Dedion, head of the circle at the Mayak Center for Additional Education of Children and Youth. — In fact, this film-formed picture has not been relevant for a long time. Yes, we are teaching the telegraph alphabet, moreover, it is gaining popularity again. It was not for nothing that the corresponding “Fox Hunting” competition appeared at the annual Army Games. After all, the network capacity can be varied, but the telegraph always breaks through and always works. But at the same time, we focus on communication via packet data transfer. While in Serebryanka, we communicated on short waves with radio amateurs from Central Asia and New Zealand. Once we established contact with the Mirny station in Antarctica and... with the International Space Station. We were lucky that the spacecraft “hung” almost above us.
Over the course of a year, approximately 50–60 people master radio skills in the circle. As a rule, children over 10 years old. They are very interested in learning the secrets of the world of radio engineering. For example, there is a receiver on the window and broadcasts music. And how it works will not only be explained here, but also shown. Further - more: acquaintance with amateur radio codes, techniques for programming elementary circuits.
“So we are gradually coming to the independent design of simple devices,” L. Dedion clarifies. — This knowledge will also help to carry out minor repairs of household appliances that do not require specific qualifications.
During classes in the circle you will learn how to use a simple set of tools. This includes a soldering iron, screwdrivers, wire cutters, pliers, tweezers, and a glue gun. An indispensable assistant is the “third hand”. It consists of a small magnifying glass and special clamps that hold conductors that need to be soldered.
Graduates of the circle can create a simple current generator, a touch sensor, a flasher, a solar alarm clock, make an extension cord, take readings with a multimeter, and assemble electronic components on a board.
The topic of conscience in scientific research
With the advent of devices that allow scanning the brain and visualizing areas of increased activity, the era of experiments in studying the human brain began. Gradually, scientists were able to put together a complete picture of how the brain works and which parts of it are responsible for certain emotions.
In 2014, it was possible to discover a part of the brain that is activated when a person is asked to make a deliberately immoral decision. Scientists from Oxford came to the conclusion that emotions associated with such a category as conscience are concentrated in one of the 12 sections of the lateral frontal cortex of the human brain, located directly above the eyebrows [University of Oxford, 2014].
Visually, this section is a spherical clot of nervous tissue, and it has different sizes in different people, so the reactions of each individual to the same external stimuli may differ. It is interesting that only humans have this 12th section (lateral frontal pole), while monkeys have only 11 sections. These 11 sections largely coincide in structure with similar sections of the human lateral frontal cortex.
Let us clarify that the objectives of the study were noticeably broader than the “search for conscience”, and are fully reflected in the article Brain area unique to humans linked to cognitive powers (“The area of the brain unique to humans is associated with cognitive abilities”) [University of Oxford, 2014 ].
Of course, research of this magnitude is not carried out in one day or year. Interim results were published back in 2011 in the article Frontal cortex and reward-guided learning and decision-making [M. Rushworth et al., 2011].
Russian scientists also made their contribution to the study of this issue. Our scientists propose to consider conscience from an anthropocentric perspective, which will allow us to better understand the underlying reasons for human behavior in situations of moral choice. You can read more about this approach in the article “Towards an understanding of the phenomenon of conscience in psychology” [P. Barsukova, 2010].
Scientists at the Institute of Human Brain of the Russian Academy of Sciences believe that the so-called “pangs of conscience” are a sign of normal brain function [Interfax, 2015]. However, Russian scientists, unlike their Western colleagues, are not inclined to believe that only one part of the brain is responsible for emotions associated with conscience. Everything related to complex psychological reactions can only be considered in the context of the functioning of the nervous system and the brain as a whole.
Research on the topic of conscience actualizes new scientific problems related to this issue. Thus, some researchers especially focus on the fact that any person self-determines in matters of conscience and morality both in his personal capacity and as a social agent, i.e. acting as an agent of public morality, the action of which is institutionally mediated [R. Apresyan, 2018].
Therefore, in future research it will be logical to study conscience as a phenomenon, taking into account the fact that it will manifest itself differently as an autonomous agent and as an agent of public morality. This dilemma is discussed in more detail in the article “The Problem of Conscience in Modern Russian Psychological Research and the Problems of Ethics” [R. Apresyan, 2018]. The author develops this idea in his subsequent works. In particular, in the article “Philosophical and ethical guidelines for the psychological study of conscience” [R. Apresyan, 2019].
Now that we have some idea of how conscience functions and what it is, it’s time to try to answer the question in the title: why doesn’t everyone have a conscience?
