Driving along a country lane, a motorist saw a group of teenagers ahead. They were more in a group than a line and not even walking on the right side of the road. He slowed down, tooted the horn and drove past them. As he did so, the car mirror caught one of them. This prompted the individual to give a shout, which was followed by a chorus from the rest of the group. He drove on.
Thinking about it, he was initially angry with them all for being so careless. Then he began to wonder whether in fact the person he had clipped might in fact be hurt. What if they were? Shouldn’t he really stop and check? His conscience told him he should do so. At the same time, self interest pulled him in two different directions: drive on, because otherwise the group might jeer at him and even become physical; or go back, for otherwise he might be reported for not stopping after an accident.
CONSCIENCE
“centrepoint of individual awareness of right or wrong, which may provide signals regarding what to do or not to do ("My conscience tells me I shouldn't do this"), or indicate regret at what has been done ("I feel bad about that"). Critics suggest that it is so variable from one culture to another, and between one individual and another, that it is unhelpful to rely on it in any way. In the Christian tradition dating back to Paul in the New Testament, and continually reaffirmed over the centuries, conscience is the gateway to moral and religious awareness. Its freedom is now identied in the Universal Declarartion of Human Rights as warranting protection in every country and culture, and education of conscience if a fundamental priority.”
Illustrative Stories
’Guilty conscience’
question: is the message from this that when self-interest and conscience coincide, we should follow it, but when they don’t, we should ignore it?
’Advance warning mechanism’
She had mixed feelings about her work. Her colleagues were friendly enough, but the work itself was quite tedious - mainly word processing and answering the occasional phone call. A friend had offered her a ticket for Wimbledon tomorrow and she’d really like to go. Unfortunately, she’d already used up all her holiday allocation. The friend suggested she simply call in sick. She was very tempted at the thought. No-one would know or suspect. Nevertheless, her conscience told her it would be wrong, so she decided she couldn’t go.
question: was she being unnecessarily squeamish in heeding what some would mock as an over-sensitive conscience?
Extracts from influential writings
Greek Tragedy
Orestes: I call it conscience.
The certain knowledge of wrong, the conviction of crime.
Menelaus: You speak somewhat obscurely. What do you mean?
Orestes: I mean remorse. I am sick with remorse.
Euripedes Orestes (c.420 BC) 11.395f
question: do people today ever become ill as a result of knowing inside themselves that they are guilty of wrongdoing?
English and Danish Tragedy
“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.”
William Shakespeare Hamlet (1602) Act 3, Scene 1
question: can it be that ’conscience’ may sometimes get in the way of decisive action, whether that action is in itself good or bad?
Freud: you can’t rely on it!
“The philosopher Kant once declared that nothing proved to him the greatness of God more convincingly than the starry heavens and the moral conscience within us. The stars are unquestionably supurb, but, where conscience is concerned, God has been guilty of an uneven and careless piece of work, for a great many men have only a limited share of it or scarcely enough to be worth mentioning....It is a very remarkable experience to observe morality, which was once ostensibly conferred on us by God and planted deep in our hearts, functioning as a periodical phenomenon. For after a certain number of months the whole moral fuss is at an end, the critical voice of the super-ego is silent, the ego is reinstated, and enjoys once more all the rights of man until another attack.”
Sigmund Freud New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis
question: is ’conscience’, as Freud suggests, really so patchy between one person and another and so conveniently malleable?
The long lingering of conscience
from Voices. The Art and Science of Psychotherapy Vol 1:1, page 32
This 40 year old cartoon illustrates Freud’s theory that conscience or ‘super-ego’ is largely the creation of parental influence, unconsciously acquired, which we carry around in our emotional luggage long after we have left home
question: what’s the evidence that conscience is merely the internalisation of our parents’ inhibitions?
Conscience-less-ness = inhumanity?
“’Psychopath’ – one incapable of feeling any sense of remorse or guilt, and entirely devoid of conscience.”
Douglas Graham Moral Learning and Development. Theory and Research Batsford 1972 Chapter 15
question: as a conscienceless person, do I cease to be human?
Biblical References
An Internally sensed knowledge of God and goodness
“The time is coming, says the Lord… when I will make a new covenant with Israel and Judah…I will set my law within them and write it in their hearts...No longer need they teach one another to know the Lord; all of them, high and low alike, shall know me says the Lord.” Jeremiah 31:31-4
question: do you think a time will ever come when we know longer need teachers?
This conscience is pre-existent in all humanity
“For God has no favourites: those who have sinned outside the pale of the Law of Moses will perish outside its pale, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. It is not by hearing the law, but by doing it, that anyone will be justified before God. When Gentiles who do not possess the law carry out its precepts by the light of nature, then, although they have no law, they are their own law, for they display the effects of the law inscribed in their hearts. Their conscience is called to witness, and their own thoughts argue the case on either side, against them or even for them, on the day when God judges the secrets of human hearts through Christ Jesus. So my gospel declares.” Romans 2:11-16
question: Jews have the benefit of the Torah, the rest of us don’t but, in our hearts we still know the difference between right and wrong, and that’s what conscience is all about. Is Paul kidding himself?
Conscience should mean freedom, with an eye on the common good
"Everything is permissible"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"--but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.
Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, "The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it."
If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience’ sake -- the other man’s conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God-- even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. 1 Corinthians 10: 23 – 11:1
question:
Expositions from Theologians
Paul Tillich
“...the moral conscience is ambiguous in what it commands us to do or not to do. In view of innumerable historical and psychological cases, one cannot deny that there is an ’erring conscience’. The conflicts between tradition and revolution, between nomism and liberality, between authority and autonomy, make a simple reliance on the ’voice of conscience’ impossible. It is a risk to follow one’s conscience; it is a greater risk to contradict it. But if it is uncertain, the greater risk is required. Therefore, although it is safer to follow one’s conscience, the risk may be disastrous, revealing the ambiguity of conscience, and leading to the quest for a moral certainty which in temporal life is given only fragmentarily and through anticipation.”
Systematic Theology Chicago UP 1963 vol 3:48
question: does what Tillich identifies as the ’ambiguity of conscience’ mean that as an aid in moral decision making it is pretty useless? or is he saying by all means take heed of it, but beware doing so uncritically?
John Macquarrie
“...the mode of disclosure which has to do most closely with responsibility is conscience. This phenomenon is sometimes explained in terms of factors outside of the individual who experiences the conscience, either in terms of a divine influence which warns or approves, or of a social convention which has been built in, so to speak, as a super-ego and which likewise warns or approves. Both of these theories may have some truth in them, and may account for some form of conscience, but neither of them strikes the central phenomenon of conscience which, as the name ’conscience’ implies, is a kind of synoptic self-understanding, the self’s own awareness of how it measures up to itself, that is to say, how far it is failing or succeeding in bringing to actualisation its own potentialities for being.”
Principles of Christian Theology SCM Press p.58
question: as a way of explaining that conscience is a root element in every human being, how helpful is Macquarrie’s portrayal of it as continuous panoramic viewing by the self of where we stand in relation to our own long term interests?
Walter E Conn
“I am now proposing that we understand conscience in the fully human sense as being proper to and distinguishing the person, who has taken possession of her or himself critically as a free and responsible creator, and has opted for value over satisfaction as a criterion for decision and choice – the person who is a source of love, a principle of benevolence and beneficence, because her or his very being is a being-in-love. Conscience, then, in a few words, should be understood as the fundamental, dynamic reality of the personal subject who has committed, dedicated, indeed, surrendered her or himself to the radical demands of the human spirit: be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, be responsible, love. Quite simply, conscience is the fullest expression of the personal subject’s fundamental need for full self-transcendence.”
Conscience: Development and Self-Transcendence RE Press Alabama 1981 p.207-8
question: he says his message is simple; try putting it in your own words
Josel Fuchs
“A widespread viewpoint among Catholics holds that the conscience’s function is to transmit concrete moral instructions, or general moral norms, to the individual. Clearly, this opinion must not be taken to mean that the conscience is a prefabricated moral information service; otherwise, how could different consciences give mutually contradictory information? And how is it pssible for such a diverse pluralism in ethical questions as we actually find today to exist, if we do not wish to assume that human beings are generally irresponsible?…
There is in our society more than one single choice with regard to our conduct, and also with regard to right conduct in the various spheres of life. Given this plurality, one must reflect conscientiously on the various choices and on their internal and external authority, in order to strive with the will to arrive at true insight. What is thus grasped as the manner of morally correct conduct becomes the requirement spoken by one’s conscience; if one has sought it in moral goodness, one must also follow it with a view to moral goodness. The word spoken by the conscience about morally right behaviour is the only word of the inner man about such behaviour, and is therefore the only norm in him that is able to guide his decision, which is likewise inner and personal. It is the observance of this norm – and thus not the observance of norms, as such, that are offered from outside one’s own self – that achieves inner unity of the self (instead of division), and this determines personal moral goodness on the path that must always be sought afresh in a world that offers a plurality of such choices.”
Christian Morality: the Word becomes Flesh Gill and Macmillan 1987, pp. 135-6
question: how satisfactory is this as a strategy both to make sense of moral pluralism and to act in good conscience?
Gerhard Ebeling
"The etymology of suneidesis, on which the derived renderings ’conscientia’ and ’conscience’ are modelled, points to the fact that the root of the phenomenon of conscience lies in the basic ontological determination of man as the being whose relation to himself is that of joint cognisance. To call conscience an organ (even a vitally necessary organ) in man misses the basic fact that conscience is a matter of the coming to expression of man himself. Strictly man does not ’have’ a conscience, but he is a conscience. He is his own witness...man is the being who is answerable. As conscience man is call and answer at the same time."
Word and Faith SCM Press p.417
question: ’to be human is to be a conscience’ - is this not just playing with words?
Parallels in other cultures
Conscience
Buddhism
The right-minded man concerns himself with the act, and not with the consequences; he considers not what is pleasant or unpleasant, but what is good and right according to the rules of morality. When he does right, and does not seek any result, he is relieved of all the burdens of doubt, fear and perplexity, he never becomes involved in an inextricable tangle or difficulty. His mind is at peace, his conscience serene; these are the requisites for health, happiness and long life.
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/buddhism/thitila2.htm#buddhism2 ’Essential Themes of Buddhist Lectures: Buddhism,’ by the Venerable Sayadaw U Thittila.
Buddhism
Even the Shintô doctrine of conscience--the god-given sense of right and wrong--was not denied by Buddhism. But this conscience was interpreted as the essential wisdom of the Buddha dormant in every human creature,--wisdom darkened by ignorance, clogged by desire, fettered by Karma, but destined sooner or later to fully awaken, and to flood the mind with light.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/jai/jai11.htm ’The Introduction to Buddhism.’
Buddhism
The sterling qualities distinguishing the man of virtue are generosity, truthfulness, patience, and compassion. By developing and mastering these qualities within himself, a man lives at harmony with his own conscience and at peace with his fellow beings.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/khuddaka/dhp1/intro.html ‘Dhammapada: Introduction,’ by Bhikkhu Bodhi.
Hinduism
From The Mahabharata, Adi Parva
Section LXXIV
(Sambhava Parva)
Vaisampayana said: Thy heart is a witness to the truth or falsehood. He who being one thing represents himself as another thing to others, is like a thief and a robber of his own self. Of what sin is he not capable? Thou thinkest that thou alone hast knowledge of thy deed. But knowest thou not that the Ancient, Omniscient one (Narayana) liveth in thy heart? He knoweth all thy sins, and thou sinnest in His presence. He that sins thinks that none observes him. But he is observed by the gods and by Him also who is in every heart.
http://www.hinduism.co.za/conscien.htm
‘Conscience.’ Swami Shivananda discusses conscience in Hinduism.
Hinduism
The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead (B.G. 2:11).
That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable soul (B.G. 2:17).
Therefore get up. Prepare to fight and win glory. Conquer your enemies and enjoy a flourishing kingdom. They are already put to death by My arrangement, and you O Savyasaci, can be but an instrument in the fight (B.G. 11:34).
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Bhagavad-Gita As It Is Published Bhaktivedanta Book Trust 1991.
Islam
“O God, Thou hast been gracious unto us and hast bestowed conscience upon us. It is a spirit from thee. What it enjoins and what it prohibits are alike thine. whosoever obeys it obeys thee: the one who flouts it flouts thee. Thou hast left to us the obeying of it.
Keep our doings within the bounds of conscience. O God do not let us be so encumbered with the things of this world that we transgress the bounds of conscience. O God, so inspire us that we follow no other guidance. Teach us not to override it for any alternative however impressive and to set up no idols to be worshipped or esteemed as good.
For outside conscience there is no good. O God, guide those who preside over human affairs that they establish no order that will oblige others to transgress conscience and that they do not inflict on others wrongs that are immediate and concrete for the sake of something supposedly and ultimately good for society. For this is the origin of our tragic trouble and the source of the evil within us.
O God, Thou hast endowed conscience with no material force to compel our reluctant obedience. So give us inwardly a spiritual compulsion in which we will follow it out of choice and delight...O God, guide thy servants who have gone almost irretrievably astray. Thou art the hearer and the answerer.”
Kamel Hussein City of Wrong One World Pubs 1994 p 146
Judaism
Examine to this section in the rabbinic commentary incorporated in the sacred text of Numbers Rabbah 19:33 - which is rarely taught or preached or explained -but which exemplifies the uniqueness of Jewish faith.
Here the conflict is over nothing less than the wording of the Ten Commandments, twice recorded in the Book of Exodus and the Book of Deuteronomy. "I, the Lord thy God visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children unto the third and fourth generation". The rabbis did not take this statement attributed to God lying down. Through their moral imagination they saw Moses rising before God and declaring: "Master of the universe, Terach, Abraham’s father worshipped idols but Abraham discovered and loved but one God. King Ahaz was a cruel king but his son King Hezekiah was a man of great spirit. King Ammon was wicked but his son King Josiah was a righteous leader". Is it fair that the righteous be punished for the sins of their fathers?" Now, its nice to have such rhetoric, but what is important is how the tradition, how God responded to such a critique. [Can you imagine a rabbi talking to God in this fashion, or to the chairman of the Board of Directors? Moses couldn’t keep a job as a Rabbi in most congregations.]
What does God respond? God says: Moses, you have instructed Me. I shall nullify My words and confirm yours. Moreover your instruction will be recorded in your name, in the statement [Deuteronomy 24:16] "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children nor the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin".
The implication of this genre of confrontation is far- reaching. God does not shut Moses up. He does not say "You finite, mortal cipher. How dare you challenge or contradict the Master of the universe." Neither God nor the tradition consider this challenge to God as insubordination, treason, l¦se majest¦. When Moses reminds God of His morality - as Abraham did at Sodom and Gomorrah - "Shall the judge of the earth not act justly?" God is fulfilled. God’s relationship to His people is like that of a parent. Moses’ moral assertiveness is what every father and mother hopes to see in their children. Moses appeals to God in the name of God against God. Moses knows that the God within God will not sanction injustice. God has a conscience. God recognizes in the protesting voice of Moses’ conscience His own voice.
http://www.vbs.org/rabbi/hshulw/consc.htm ‘Kol Nidre - Jewish Conscience,’ by Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis (extract).
Sikhism
Sikhs believe in the moral order of the universe and know that God is both just and generous. He resides in the individual. The God within guides the human being through an inner voice. This is generally termed as conscience. Within the individual, there is a perpetual struggle between good and evil. The conscience denounces evil and supports the good. We feel happy when we follow its command and unhappy, if we disobey it.
The effects of conscience - Vivek - differs with each individual, it depends on their stage of spiritual evolution. It is necessary to educate the moral sense. This is best done by associating with Holy men and meditation on "The Word". The conscience may waver at times in its firmness and power to control over human actions. Whenever we are in doubt, we must heed the voice of the conscience. We should respect its advice and follow it. In persons whose conscience is constantly overridden, this evil blunts and suppresses it.
A basic doctrine of Sikhism is to obey the Will of God. Where can we find the Will of God? According to Guru Nanak, it is embedded in the core of the human conscience. To follow one’s conscience is, therefore, to live up to the Will of God.
‘What is Conscience?’ by the late S. Gobind Singh Mansukhani. (Part of the ‘Gateway to Sikhism’ site at http://www.allaboutsikhs.com/index.php
Status of Authors of Above Articles
Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi: Born in New York City in 1944, Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Buddhist monk (Bhikkhu). Having gained a Ph.D in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School in the USA in 1972, Bhikkhu Bodhi travelled to Sri Lanka where in 1973 he finally received his full ordination under the late Ven. Ananda Maitreya. His various publications include The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (1995), and The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (2000). Since July 2002 Bhikkhu Bodhi has been living and teaching at Bodhi Monastery.
http://www.kusala.org/udharma3/interview.html
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977): In 1933 Srila Prabhupada formally became disciple to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, who requested of Prabhupada that he broadcast Vedic knowledge in English. Subsequently, Prabhupada wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita, and in 1944 began producing ‘Back to Godhead,’ a fortnightly magazine in English. In 1950 he travelled to the holy city of Vrindavana, where he lived in the temple of Radha-Damodara. It was whilst here that Prabhupada commenced work on his translation of the 18,000 verse Srimad-Bhagavatum (Bhagavata Purana). Having published three volumes of this translation, he moved, in 1965, to the United States in order to fulfil his master’s mission. In July 1966 he established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. His writings have been translated into over fifty languages.
http://www.webcom.com/~ara/col/books/BIO/prab.html
Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis: Rabbi Schulweis received an M.A. in philosophy from New York University, and in 1950 an M.H.L. (Master of Hebrew Literature) from the Jewish Theological Seminary of New York. In 1972 he also gained a Th.D (Doctor of Theology) from the Pacific School of Religion, Berkley, California. He served as Rabbi to the Temple Beth Abraham in Oakland, California, from 1952-1970, and from 1970 to the present serves as Rabbi to the Valley Beth Shalom synogogue in Encino, California.
http://www.vbs.org/rabbi/hshulw/shulbio.htm.
Swami Sivananda (1887-1963): Having given up a lucrative medical practice in 1923 to become a world-renouncer (sannyasi), Sivananda founded in 1936 the Divine Life Society, whose main purpose was the dissemination of spiritual knowledge and selfless service to humanity. The society commenced publication of a monthly journal entitled ‘The Divine Life’ in 1938. In 1945 Sivananda established the Sivananda Ayurvedic Pharmacy, which eventually grew into a small hospital with X-ray and other facilities, and in December 1957 the Sivananda Eye Hospital was opened. In the meantime, the Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy was founded in 1948, and in 1950 Sivananda took his message all over India and to Ceylon (Sri Lanka), which reportedly attracted many people to the Ashram, presumably meaning in this case the Academy. The Sivananda Literature Research Institute was established in 1958 for the study of Sivananda’s works, and to translate these into all the regional languages in India.
http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/saints/siva.htm.
Venerable Sayadaw U Thittila (1896-1997): The Ven. U Thittila was ordained a Buddhist monk or Bhikkhu in Burma in 1916. After years of intensive study he moved to India where he was elected President of the South India Buddhist Associations, and where he also managed the Buddhist Free Elementary school at Perambur. In 1938 he moved to England, both to improve his English and to study English educational methods and the way English parents raised their children: these latter two goals were, however, suspended during the war. He was soon invited to deliver several talks, firstly by the secretary of the London Buddhist Society on the Dhamma, and then by Sir Francis Younghusband, president and founder of the World Congress of Faiths, for a talk to be given at the Sorbonne in Paris. At the close of the war the Ven. U Thittila resumed his talks, and visited people in hospital, visitied prison inmates, and schools. Having returned to India in 1952 to teach at Rangoon University, he was invited by the Association for Asian Studies at the University of Michigan to lecture at various venues across America. He lectured in many other parts of the world also, and whilst in England again after 1964 produced the first English translation of the ‘Vibhanga’, the second of the seven books of the Abhidamma Pitaka.