Human VAlues Humanities 02 Chapter 4 The Role

Human VAlues Humanities 02 Chapter 4

The Role Of Conscience • What is a conscience? Conscience is a special sense, a moral sense that is innate in human beings. • Conscience cannot be defined in terms of what it is. It can only be defined in terms of what it does or how it occurs. • Conscience may be defined as the faculty by which we determine that we are guilty of a moral offense.

Conscience and Shame • We know our conscience has judged us harshly when we feel a sense of shame. • What is Shame? The painful emotion arising from the consciousness of something dishonoring, ridiculous, or indecorous (vulgar, tasteless, indecent, and in bad taste), in one’s own conduct or circumstances.

Shame • Popular psychologist regard it as a sign of emotional instability. Probably Rogers because he would say that shame is never appropriate; instead, the proper, healthy emotion is always “self-acceptance. ” • Roger’s relativity theory spread to millions of people. • The time for celebration is not when people lose their sense of shame, but after having lost it, manage again to regain it.

The Shapers of Conscience • Two forces that are essentially outside our control are 1. Natural endowment 2. Social conditioning Along with moral choice, shape conscience

Natural Endowment • A person’s temperament and intelligence play a considerable role in shaping the total personality. • The person with a practical intelligence (inclined to action as opposed to speculation).

Social Conditioning • Conditioning is the most neglected and most important shaper of the conscience. • Definition: Conditioning is the myriad (enormously large numbers) effects of our environment: the people, places, institutions, ideas, and values we are exposed to as we grow and develop. • We are conditioned first by our early social and religious training from parents.

Moral Choice • Children’s choices are not fully conscious acts but mere assertions of will that express their inherited traits or imitation of others behavior. • Only in later childhood do we develop the ability to weigh alternatives and make reasoned moral choices.

A Balanced View of Conscience • It is not an infallible moral guide. • Conscience is the most important single guide to right and wrong an individual can have. • When circumstances demand an immediate moral choice, we should follow our conscience. • When you have the time to reflect on the choice we should analyze the issue critically and consider that a different choice might be better.

Some Definitions • Ethnocentric environment is one in which the group (race, gender, color, culture, special value system, etc. ) believes it is superior to others. Results: less tolerant of others. • Ethnocentric people as children show an inability to deal with complex situations. • Culpability moral responsibility or blame