Is guilt feeling manifested by wrongdoing? Who determines wrongdoing? Conscience? ?

Question

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Have a great day!

Answer 1

The law and society determine wrongdoing until we gain maturity, sensitivity and a conscience then we become governers of our own code of behaviour and thinking.

Answer 2

Conscience is just a set of unfocused feelings.  Our consciences are informed by the society in which we live.  So for most people, wrongdoing is defined as getting a bad feeling.  Our society trains us how to feel about things; much like we would train a dog.  The rewards are praise and respect, things we naturally desire.

Answer 3

A failure to do is guilt (a loss of motivation or motive), a failure to not do ((self constraint) is shame (self disgust). Failure determines wrong doing, excellence increases right doing.

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/erikson....

'C. Of Love To Men

Love is a matter of feeling, not of will or volition, and I cannot love because I will to do so, still less because I ought (I cannot be necessitated to love); hence there is no such thing as a duty to love. Benevolence, however (amor benevolentiae), as a mode of action, may be subject to a law of duty. Disinterested benevolence is often called (though very improperly) love; even where the happiness of the other is not concerned, but the complete and free surrender of all one’s own ends to the ends of another (even a superhuman) being, love is spoken of as being also our duty. But all duty is necessitation or constraint, although it may be self-constraint according to a law. But what is done from constraint is not done from love. It is a duty to do good to other men according to our power, whether we love them or not, and this duty loses nothing of its weight, although we must make the sad remark that our species, alas! is not such as to be found particularly worthy of love when we know it more closely. Hatred of men, however, is always hateful: even though without any active hostility it consists only in complete aversion from mankind (the solitary misanthropy). For benevolence still remains a duty even towards the man-hater, whom one cannot love, but to whom we can show kindness. To hate vice in men is neither duty nor against duty, but a mere feeling of horror of vice, the will having no influence on the feeling nor the feeling on the will. Beneficence is a duty. He who often practises this, and sees his beneficent purpose succeed, comes at last really to love him whom he has benefited. When, therefore, it is said: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” this does not mean, “Thou shalt first of all love, and by means of this love (in the next place) do him good”; but: “Do good to thy neighbour, and this beneficence will produce in thee the love of men (as a settled habit of inclination to beneficence).” The love of complacency (amor complacentiae,) would therefore alone be direct. This is a pleasure immediately connected with the idea of the existence of an object, and to have a duty to this, that is, to be necessitated to find pleasure in a thing, is a contradiction.'

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subjec...

Answer 4

Feeling of guilt manifests when we ditch our own entrenched values for the sake of fulfilling a desire or want. We can not feel guilty unless we know what we have done is wrong. I think, conscience is nothing but a bunch of values that we have deeply internalized over a period of time. In other words, the conscience of different people can be different, depending on their exposure to different life experiences and cultures. Therefore, I would say it would be erroneous to presume that conscience represents any universal set of morals.

Answer 5

Yes I think so. Wrong doing is determined by our morality, which is usually determined by our nurturing or religion. Guilt is not such a bad thing, as the amount we feel is normally equated with amount we care.

Are you asking this because you want to know, or because you want to make other people think about it??

Answer 6

Woah. A loaded question.

I would think it's completely subjective and dependent on the individual going through the situation. Some people feel guilty about cheating on their partners, some people consider it 'just s*x' and don't. But in order to feel guilty, you obviously have to do something to feel guilty about, and logically that would be wrong-doing. I've never felt bad after doing someone a favour. As for what determines wrong-doing, well obviously there is institutionalised law, the justice system etc that determines what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. But again, it is dependent on what the individual considers important, what their morals and values are, how developed and aware their conscience is. I don't think you would ever find a definitive answer.

Thanks for the thought provoking question!  

Answer 7

A clear conscience is an essential prerequisite to man being true to his beliefs and to others. Mortals unable to differentiate right from wrong are thereby ineligible to pass comment upon the actions of others if they have no knowledge or sense of right.

Strong willed, respectable persons may be fallible at times but remain true to the necessity of the greater good, morality and principles. If one is reigned over by blatantly immoral, unprincipled and unethical politicians and monarchs then by nature of mimicry the entire social infrastructure falls because the centre focal operative is itself flawed and impervious to the sensibilities of their citizens.

If man can be no greater than his Creator, then civilians care able to be no greater than those that lead or preside at their helm.

Answer 8

You have worded your question in a really confusing way... "Is guilt feeling manifested by wrongdoing?" Do you mean - does wrong doing cause guilt?

I think people feel guilty for a variety of reason, some of them nothing to do with wrong doing. Some people just feel more guilt than others. Usually those with low self-esteem and a low sense of self-worth. Some people feel guilty for everything. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. You can feel guilty about what you HAVE done, but also for what you have NOT done (but feel you should have).

Everyone has their own ethical and moral code of conduct.  

Answer 9

I think that as we grow up, our conscience is formed by our life experiences and other lessons in life which we learn from the people most important to us - family, friends, teachers, etc. This teaches us what is right and what is wrong, and for some of us, it teaches us when we do something wrong, we feel bad. Our conscience has been shaped in such a way that if we do something good, we feel good in ourselves but we feel awful if we do something which is morally wrong.

Answer 10

I feel we are all born with an intrinsic knowledge of right and wrong.

When we knowingly do something wrong, or even before, there is a little bell or voice in our head that says; No no no!  If we pursue this, knowing, full well it is wrong, therein lies the guilt.  If we are truly sorry for what has been done, it is possible to forgive ourselves.  Although this is the hardest part of our actions.  Sometimes it can take a very long time, sometimes, never.

Answer 11

we determine our own conscience thats why we feel guilt