Everything2
Near Matches
Ignore Exact
Full Text
Everything2

Why should we trust our conscience?

created by cerberus

(idea) by Jaez (1.9 d) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Thu May 10 2001 at 15:34:06

What else can you trust? It gives you the only truly personal reflection what is and is not right in relation to you and you alone. Everyone else who preaches to you does so from some personal interest, or may do. But your conscience only talks to you. I would listen to it, it is connected to all of your bodily and mental states. Ignoring it has rather painful consequences, and killing it or curtailing it makes you a soulless machine and easy to spot as someone to avoid.

(idea) by QXZ (5.3 d) (print)   ?   (I like it!) 1 C! Thu May 10 2001 at 16:00:20

A caveat: your conscience is not yours.

When one refers to one's conscience, one is really talking about all the morality and prohibitions one has received from parents, society, media, etc., and internalized.

Your conscience is part of the meme machine that is your mind; an agglomeration of external influences, ideas and opinions.

It is true that you can only look to yourself as the final arbiter of the morality of your actions; but be aware of whose thoughts you are thinking. Analyze your conscience. Keep what's useful and throw away the rest.

Most of the things you feel guilty about are harmless.


A response to gitm's comments:
My writeup is not intended to be self-contradictory. My admonition to analyze one's own conscience implies the very synthesis process you are advocating. The writeup attempts to address the fact that a large number of people do not do this and, instead, take their conscience at face value.
"Conscience" as it is normally discussed is essentially programming. When people cry out to others to "use your conscience", what they usually mean to say is "adhere to the accepted mores and taboos of our society!", regardless of the "objective" value of those mores and taboos.

I think it is more useful to ask people to use their consciousness; to explore their thoughts and feelings and arrive at a more truthful and beneficial mental state. Your mind is a tool, not a prison.


printable version
chaos

Are Clones Individuals? What I do with my philosophy degree conscience Meme
guilt Blame The Meme Machine morality
caveat Nate Thayer Determinism Your radical ideas about society, individualism, and religion have already occurred to others
empathy mores
Y'know, if you log in, you can write something here, or contact authors directly on the site. Create a New User if you don't already have an account.
  Epicenter
Login
Password

password reminder
register

Everything2 Help

Cool Staff Picks
Look at this mess the Death Borg made!
Right. Me and Herman Melville
Bella Luna
The Glass Bead Game
American football
Walther PPK
Richard P. Feynman
Jesse Owens
Don't node drunk
Why I became a geneticist
Joan of Arc
History of Techno
our new friend, the ten-foot pole
Black & White
New Writeups
Pavlovna
My Better Half(fiction)
kanoodle
Molson muscle(essay)
aneurin
You pays your money and you takes your choice(idea)
shaogo
July 20, 2008(log)
Glowing Fish
Tualatin River(place)
The Jacket
Words of Advice(idea)
John_Fox
Good Intentions Gone Wrong(person)
Heitah
Posthumous Oscar(thing)
ignis_glaciesque
University of South Florida(place)
ignis_glaciesque
Flogstaskriket(idea)
liveforever
Caesar's last breath(idea)
dagnyswaggart
she wants to believe(personal)
antigravpussy
he doesn't know, but her eyes widen too far(thing)
dagnyswaggart
Wild tides guard her secrets(poetry)
Lord Brawl
Caesar's last breath(poetry)
E2 is a by-product of the existence of The Everything Development Company