What is conscience?

Question

What is conscience?

Answer 1

The moral "brake" that stops our baser impulses.

Answer 2

It is your soul - the "soul" that God gave us. You don't see it but it reminds you if the actions that you are about to undertake is not morally right.

Answer 3

It is the little voice in your head that tells you you are doing wrong whenever you stray.

Answer 4

It comes from empathy.  

Answer 5

Social rules which have been imposed on you.

Answer 6

what are unicorns?

Answer 7

it's in the dictionary. there's a dictionary on the internet too.

Answer 8

The instinctual guilt/shame we feel when doing something we perceive as hurtful to others or ourselves.

Answer 9

Nietzsche said in one of his quotes "There are various eyes. Even the Sphinx has eyes: and as a result there are various truths, and as a result there is no truth." From that I can tell you that there is no answer to your question. One may view it as a idea that society instilled in you while you were young. Another may view it as the innerhumanity feeling guilty of doing wrong to another. What ever it is, we can only accept its existance.

Answer 10

"Conscience is a vehicle of omniscience.  Conscience--coming directly from the omniscient power of the soul--knows the right or wrong of the past, the present and the future....Conscience, as a stronghold of the heart, is the suppport of existence in life and in death....Memory is the whole link in the dignity of man's becoming.  If there were no memory, there would be no conscience or consciousness....One cleanses his conscience by confession.  Confession without rectification is hypocrisy."  Ann Ree Colton, "Kundalini West."

Also good:  "The Path of the Higher Self" and "Paths of Light and Darkness," Mark Prophet, and "The Great Divorce," C. S. Lewis.

Answer 11

Cognitive awareness of a social contract.

From birth you have come to rely upon others as a support for your survival, as you grow older the bond formed from this support results in a psychological obligation to avoid disappointing the expectations of the social network that has provided you with support.

When you engage in activity that you know would be disapproved of by that network you feel shame and guilt not because they expect better of you but because you expect better of yourself, well provided that you and the expectations are rational.

Answer 12

the one that reminds you to remove your hand from the cookie jar.

Answer 13

motivation deriving logically from ethical or moral principles that govern a person's thoughts and actions

# conformity to one's own sense of right conduct; "a person of unflagging conscience"

# a feeling of shame when you do something immoral; "he has no conscience about his cruelty"