Introduction

• The conscience is different to being conscious
• Scholars:

  • Thomas Aquinas
  • Joseph Butler
  • Friedrich Schleiermacher
  • William Holman Hunt
  • Sigmund Freud
• Scholars:

  • Emile Durkeim
  • Lawrence Kohlberg
  • Erich Fromm
  • Joseph Fletcher
• Conscience most often takes the form of having a 'bad conscience' about something
• Guilt is a personal disappointment and regret, whereas shame is related to how others will think of you
• When there is no clear moral principle, people follow their conscience
• The brain adapts to certain ways of thinking and acting
• Conscience is personal, intuitive, internal and goes deeper than moral principles that are established through ethical arguments or social conventions
• Every decision etches itself into our neural pathways and suggests what our next decision should be
• "Thus conscience does make cowards of us all"- Shakespeare