sophie

The definition of conscience taken from an online dictionary

Conscience : the sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one's own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good.

Conscience : a faculty, power, or principle enjoining good acts

Conscience : the part of the superego in psychoanalysis that transmits commands and admonitions to the ego.


I don't know but mabye it's me. I cannot seem to find any evidence of conscience here in Canada. What I mean is the pricking of the conscience in order to right wrongs. DOes this mean that others here in Canada do not have that built in conscience I feel is natural to me?

Or is it that the generalisation of conscience is only a total waste of philosophical time?

Luiseach

Why the focus on the issue of Canada 'righting wrongs' in particular? Could you please be a bit more specific?

The definition you provided for 'conscience' seems precise enough to me, btw.

sophie

Because that is the only place where I can gather evidence seeing I live in Canada and I am affected by Canadian society.

Luiseach

Could you please be more specific about what you mean by the following statement:

What evidence of a lack of conscience in Canada are you talking about?

Which 'wrongs' are you talking about?

sophie

What I may wish to claim is if conscience is supposed to act as the arbiter between right and wrong then would the final act of conscience not be righting the wrongs you yourself or even others have created? If this were not so then sonscience would be constrained to a very selfish act of self-servival if it exists at all,

In way of speaking about Canada seeing I am a member of that society and I have noticed various wrongs which take place in the society, like beating and degradation of homeless people, marginalisation of certain members of society, wilful acts of vengence against innocent people, corruption within the justice system causing innocent people to suffer to name a few, you notice a resentment held by certain people because thay have had to sink with the wrongs done to them.

Verily complaints have had no impact because of the marginal nature of those who make the complaints, they are not important enough to cause rectifying action to be taken. In other words people's conscience do not prick them to the extent, if to any extent at all, which would cause actions to right the wrongs.

Thomas Ash

Yes, conscience has become extinct in Canada. It's a bit ofa tragedy, really, especially given that a lot of my family live there. Fortunately, it lingers on in a few reservations, and they hope to reintroduce it some time soon.

ex-xian

I don't think this thread meets the criteria of being metadisussion on ethics, I'm moving it to MF&P.

sophie

ex-xian : What was the quote supposed to convey? The existence of air?

ex-xian

From philosophy forum's guidelinesThis thread consists of discussion of morality in Canada and whether or not someone's conscience is a good source for morality.

sophie

ex-xian : Wrong on both counts.

The thread consists of aposteriori evidence from Canada of some philosophical hypothesis called conscience which I claimed was natural to me. Followed by whether this so-called conscience was complete without altruism, that is its correspondence and existential bearing on the external world.

Conscience may be construed as a moral, but to us philosophers we try to find if there is any apriori evidence for its existing in a natural state prior to societal implications.

If you already knew the answer by moving the thread, perhaps you can be kind enough to supply the damm answer.