Intro To Conscience

Question 1

Conscience

Answer 1

Persons in built moral sense of right and wrong, viewed as acting as a guide to ones behaviour

Three related functions:
- what we ought to do as a guide for our lives
- source of moral knowledge
- form of motivation for acts we do

Takes form of having ‘guilty conscience’ about something you’ve done
Implying that you know that you didn’t do right thing
Also used when thinking about or advising others on what should be done in the future, when there’s no clear moral guide about what to do might advise person to follow their conscience - follow ones sense of right even if others argue against it

Personal, intuitive and deeper than moral principles
Brain is plastic and adapts to habitual ways of thinking and acting, every decision etches itself onto our neural pathways and suggests what our next decision should be ; humans train ourselves

Question 2

Yorkshire ripper

Answer 2

Believed god told him to murder 13 women because they were prostitutes
Shows if everyone listened to their conscience could lead to more immoral actions

Sources of morality (conscience formed:)
Parents
Religion
Media
Government