flexible conscience?

Question

is there such a thing as a flexible conscience?

Answer 1

PARSIMONY & You rock, figjam!!!...

anyway, here's a lot of stuff. Probably more than you need:

http://www.tk421.net/essays/simple.html

If I understand you correctly, the actual word in the english language to desribe what you're after is...parsimony.

Check out the link that I provided, but in a nutshelll, everyone has a flexible conscience which he or she applies to situations in a relative way.
For example:
If a child molester comes before the you, the judge, in a court of law, you would probably throw the book at him and give him the maximum sentence under the premiss that "THE LAW IS THE LAW!!!" This represents a high level of parsimony...
But that same judge may have a soft spot for his own daughter? He comes home from work and immediately can ascertain that she ate the cookies instead of having dinner. He says, well, jee, I know the rule is that she has to have dinner before cookies...but I got home late...she had a light lunch...we didn't have a good selection of good dinner options for her...yadda...yadda..yadda...NEXT thing you know, he's kissing her goodnight and saying, "Don't worry about breaking the rules, it's OK!"

That is indicative of a low level of parsimony.

This kind of hypocritical conflict happens everyday and mankind doesn't even realize it's going on because this flexibility of conscience is a priori accepted as a part of mankind...

Now, I don't want to go any further, unless you still need more help. When this question gets resolved, you can put a comment in the comments section with a link to another question if you need more.

I will respond...

Answer 2

I think so.

I would consider denial, selective memories or any other self-delusions as an act of a flexible conscience