What is a conscience?

Question

not the definition but more like the explanation of why it exists and why we are the only living things on earth that have them

Answer 1

a concience exist to help u do whats righit instead of what wrong
it s good because it makes u realize things and bites ur *** when what u did hurt some one

Answer 2

We are most definitely NOT the only living things on earth that have them. It's as proven as the earth you stand on that everything from dogs to chimpanzees to birds to whales have some form of a conscience. Why we have them remains a mystery. An interesting fact though: No bear has ever been observed yawning, and it is widely believed that bears do not have any form of conscience. Maybe there's a connection.....?

Answer 3

The distinction between right and wrong is on a personal level. For primitive things like fire it's an instinctual mechanism.

We have the ability to conclude our actions before they are made. Whether it is deemed right or wrong is solely on the individual. Some animals do have a conscience.

The cat can conclude that eating off my plate while I am present is not a good idea from prior experience. Weather he learn it for a pattern or not it is intelligent to not make the same mistake twice.

Without a conscience a killer would not be so effective in our society. He would not know it is right or wrong and do it without caution of being noticed. "A killer without a conscience" is based off a society standpoint that it is ethically wrong to kill and all should know that.

A conscience is what it is a state of being and awareness. The individuals personality defines it. No one gave me my conscience but, me. I defined it as I lived and perceived things and developed my personality.

That is why children do not know right from wrong they are developing their conciseness from environmental factors like family, school, society.

Answer 4

I believe that conscience does not exist as a virtue regulator for any person on its own, for otherwise philosophers of all time weren't going to have trouble defining virtue.

Besides this, how can you compare conscience with common sense? Traditionally you will seperate it by saying that common sense is used in less-harmful issues and conscience is used in high moral situations, such as murder etc.

Personally, I believe that the effect of "conscience" on the self is merely a response of a core belief system with many beliefs, attitudes, principles & values pre-programmed since childhood to determine how you're going to react or feel to any possible situation.

Conclusive belief: Conscience as the general public believes does not exist as an external spiritual regulator (that would even violate free will somehow), but rather it's based on each person's schema.

(Psychology) Schema: A pattern imposed on complex reality or experience to assist in explaining it, mediate perception, or guide response.

Answer 5

Religiously speaking, the conscience is God's presence, the extra pull toward the inclination to do good instead of the simple "fight or flight" and "herd instinct" responses.
Scientifically speaking, we're the only beings on Earth that possess consciences because we're the most developed, and we have created distinctions between right and wrong.
To wit; no other species on the planet has created that disctinction. They may feel any number of things, but they don't know whether it's right or wrong to do so, they are only concerned with survival and the natural order of things. A dog isn't loyal to you because it feels that's the right thing to do, it's loyal to you because you are the alpha, so to speak.

Answer 6

That is why we are lucky and we are important characters for this Earth for a very long time. Why it exists well... I can't answer that some say its because our neurons are so...well i forget the article. But you know sometimes its a bummer to have one but sometimes its great we do. Also that we understand we have one is the reason our conscience is our conscience. Not many useful words but a airy feel for ya'.

Answer 7

It help us to consider others, and with it, is the only way we can live in harmony.
It's a break, to stop us from being a selfish.
It's not same as just feeling guilty of what you've done, like even some animals do have, it's more focusing on awareness of others.
Tender loving care to others is not something people do out of guiltiness, rather, it's an act of conscience.
Without it, we human will turned into a most greedy monster in universe, as some already has.

Answer 8

Humans are the the only humans that kill not out of necessity but out of pleasure, for entertainment , and for our personal use ( fur coats ). Of course there are some other animals that tend to do this stuff ( cats that play with their food ) but we managed to ... evolve in a bad way and because of that so many species are extinct . I belive conscience is our way of telling ourselves what we're doing is harming the world around us .
I realise i only answered half of the question , but maybe because we harmed everything else for so long we developed this aptitude to distinguish good from bad in a very basic way towards every bad deed .
It's 24:37 over here , so i'm sorry if i'm not making any sense , but i'm really tired.

Answer 9

Fabulous question for sure, I would say it is as simple as good vs. evil. We may be the only living things on earth that have them, however, we are also the only animals that go out and kill other people for reasons other than to breed or to protect ourself, unlike in the animal kingdom (there wouldn't be any Ted Bundy serial killers in the wild animal kingdom). Good vs. Evil and free will.

Answer 10

God gave us a conscience to keep us doing the right thing.....but we have to decide to do it or not....and I am not trying to argue with you, but other living things DO have a conscience as well.....my beloved cat will sometimes get mad at me when I won't let him out (he's declawed and has to be supervised outdoors)....well, he will pout for awhile....then ...as if he were like a person would....he will "make up" with me.....I can feel it....good question though...

Answer 11

I do not think we are the only thing on earth with consciences but the human race afre the only ones asware of it. That's my belief and I am sticking to it.