Are we born with a conscience or do we develop one?

Question

Cause somethings we think are wrong today weren't thought of as wrong thousands of years ago like human sacrifice and stealing(talking about Spartan agoge). Or does the conscience change as people's idea of morality change?
I know that Hamurabi's code and the ten commandments are very similar so that sort of suggest being born with a conscience right?

Answer 1

I'd humbly suggest that we as humans are taught a lot about what is right and wrong. As many have mentioned morality does change with time and culture. But...

There are two exceptions you have to note to this:

--Every human culture and society does have one principle in common. And this principle, in primitive form, also shows up in most warm-blooded social animals as well.

The principle is called "tit-for-tat" in biology circles, and operates from the idea that with two strangers who are members of the same species, you 1) first assume friendly relations, and then 2) return the favor shown, doing as you are done by.

In humans it's much the same in all cultures: You do for others as you would have them do for you.

I'd suggest this bit alone is pretty solidly instinctive, and is something people *want* to do by default....you see this all the time in healthy kids as they make friends.

--There is a catch though. Not all people are healthy in the social sense. It is a part of the price we pay for having such massive, overgrown, powerful brains--any little thing can go wrong and make people antisocial to various degrees and in manifold ways.

Some folks just don't have it in them intellectually to learn and remember the rules and moralities we live by day to day.

Others are smart enough but are flawed when it comes to impulse control....they can think their way through anything but have a flaw within them that sabotages their emotional reserves of self control.

Others still....well, I could go on all night but others still can have problems even *understanding* the barest basics of what it means to be social or what human nature as behavior is about. The stuff most folks take for granted, the "unspoken language" whereby we sort of half-learn, half-memorize the informal rules that tell us what's "appropriate" and what isn't, some people just don't pick up correctly, and basically have to have it broken down and *told to them* as if it were a laundry list or a script.

Point is. Different people are born with different capacities for morality and sociality, and while we *can* drill a very basic and elementary sense of right and wrong into the overwhelming majority of humans, still, the fact remains that for a very few individuals, talking about "right" or "wrong" or "good" or "evil" is like talking about color to someone *born blind*. You're not going to get anywhere really.

So for those few people....I'd say they were born without the *ability* to develop a conscience. And that the reverse of that is, most people *are born* with the ability, or the potential, to develop a conscience, but yes, it has to be developed like anything else. Somebody has to help people put in the time and effort somewhere to grow this attribute, or else a person will wind up with a crippled or malformed social capacity for sure.

Hope this helps. Thanks for your time.

Answer 2

The idea that morality is based in some sort of natural law has been argued back and forth for a long time. The popularity of the notion that we have inborn ideas of right and wrong enjoyed great favor for a long time. By the late 1940s, the idea was in decline from two causes - the Freudian idea of the "tabula rasa" - every child born with a clean slate upstairs, and - probably more important - the effect of the Holocaust, because it was based on the idea that people are born with a set of predispositions, and the Nazis used this idea to condemn Jews as naturally corrupt.
I guess I am one who thinks that unless human behavior arises from the vapors, it must have some basis in the brain. But that is not to say that everyone's brain has the same basic information or tendencies. People have differing ideas of morality, and some people seem to be amoral.

Answer 3

Conscience is merely a label given to the cognitive process of deciding that something is right or wrong.

When, for example, did you first believe that killing, stealing, or sacrifice was wrong? Who told you that this was wrong? Why did you believe them?

Common moral codes merely suggest that there are common human experiences. Of course, human sacrifice disputes this as this is a form of suicide. Allowing someone to kill you to be a sacrifice to the gods is to commit suicide. Cannabilism is also considered "right" in some cultures as it was over time. It wasn't until "whites" and "civilized" people showed up and started to punish people for the act did people develop a sense of the wrongness of the action.

I can't think of one thing that you could consider wrong that wasn't taught to you and reinforced in some way in your environment or in the culture.

Answer 4

John Paul II (JPII) did much speaking on this:

"Conscience, in fact, is the 'place' where man is illuminated by a light which does not come to him from his created and always fallible reason, but from the very Wisdom of the Word in whom all things were created,"

" Only a correctly-formed conscience rightly corresponds to human dignity -- a conscience that searches for the truth and, enlightened by it, decides. Therefore human dignity requires that a person orient his conscience in accordance with the lawful order established by the Creator; in matter of conscience he must consult the truth revealed in Christ and include the Church's authoritative teaching."

"The formation of on's conscience is a fundamental duty. The reason is very simple; our conscience can err. An when error prevails over it, it becomes a cause of the greatest harm for the human person ... " < JPII, L'Osservatore Romano general audience Aug 1983>

"Q: Isn't it sufficient to follow my own conscience?
A: It is not sufficient, therefore, to say to man: 'Always follow your conscience.' It is necessary to add immediately and always: 'Ask yourself if your conscience is telling you the truth or something false, and seek untiringly to know the truth.' If we were not to make this necessary clarification, man would risk to find in his conscience a force which is destructive of his true humanity, rather than that holy place where God reveals to him his true good." < JPII, ibid >

Answer 5

We as human beings have been given an inborn conscience unlike lower species who are programmed to be instinctive. Our conscience allows us to be wise and carries with it the ability to make just decisions for the benefit of what is good and right.
Our conscience is molded by our environment and influenced by those around us. Governments enforce laws we should not break and most law abiding citizens follow them. Many religions also have an influence on our actions by teaching us to do good to others.
During the times of child sacrifice the nations went along with forced laws by the ruling power they were governed by.. Many of them acceded to these barbaric acts as they believed it was a form of worship to their gods.
The determining factor of acting upon a deed lays with us and whether we have trained our conscience to do good or bad.

Answer 6

It's more a thing about "self being". I remember very clearly - i was 10 years old and sitting on a box in the garage by myself, and the thought hit me "Hey! i AM somebody! i can think for myself and i have feelings!". It's half of that and half of what your parents teach you that leads up to a "Conscience". These days, it seems like a whole lot of parents have dropped the ball on their part......

Answer 7

We are taught right from wrong. Most cultures have similar mores about killing and steeling etc, but you're right, over time and place right and wrong change- it's not something we're born with.

Answer 8

we are the vessel of conscience,
Born with it, unlike any other creature..
We either fill it with clarity or impurity,
keep it clean , the vessel gets stronger.
keep it dirty, the vessel will shatter into pieces

Answer 9

CONSCIENCE COMES FROM LEARNED EXPERIENCE WHICH EXPLAINS DIFFERENT RITUALS FOR DIFFERENT SOCIETIES. WE ARE NOT BORN WITH A CONSCIENCE.