A genius (me) examines the use of conscience!
Conscience
Conscience can have a powerful effect on ethical decision-making. However, it should never be the standard by which right and wrong is determined. There are three reasons why conscience should not predicate moral choices: Deviant conscious, irrational conscious effects, and experience.
Deviant conscious is when the individual have no conscious barometer. Certain mental conditions can create people “without conscious.” They have abnormal psychologies that allow them, without guilt, to commit crimes such as rape and murder. Other examples include people like Stalin, Mao, and Hitler, who butchered millions of people through their direct actions to consolidate their own power. These particular examples of humanity deviate so grossly outside the accepted standards of human conduct and decency that they were effectively without conscious.
This affects the role of conscious because it can justify sickening acts. If conscious was the primary indicator of the rightness of an act, then there is no moral high ground. Every moral argument fails before this wave of relativism. St. Francis of Assisi was no more right then Hitler in his actions. Conscious as moral reasoning is quickly replaced when you are the victim of oppression and injustice.
An irrational conscious effect is when people feel irrational guilt or grief. For example, in major accidents, survivors sometimes feel guilt because they survived. Another example is what is called “scrupulosity,” which is an “unwarranted fear that something is a sin which, as a matter of fact, is not.” Both these examples illustrate that the conscious can be irrational. Reason should be the guide to moral decisions, not irrationality.
Experience creates conscious. In affect, it teaches the learner what conscious is. Every day people make moral choices. To do right and to do wrong, whether to cheat on the test, or tell their parents the truth, people are faced with conflicting choices. Sometimes, people need to experience something to understand its consequences. They do not realize the hurt that their choices cause, hence, lack of experience may be a barrier in making sound moral judgments. Hopefully, our experiences will build our conscious to do what is right. I think that the conscious empowers the individual to have the courage to act according to an objective good. Experience also teaches the individual wisdom as to how to react to certain ethical dilemmas. Not all moral decisions are easy to make, and the conscious is important in allowing the right decision to be acted upon.
Therefore, the conscious alone cannot be relied upon to provide the answer in moral decision-making. All morality must be firmly rooted in reason. Humanity cannot live by any other standard then that of reason. The conscious can be negatively influenced by relativism, irrationality, and experience, leaving only a kernel of humanity. The difference between man and beast is reason, and if it is left unused, there is then no difference between man and beast.