conscience

conscience, sense of moral awareness or of right and wrong. The concept has been variously explained by moralists and philosophers. In the history of ethics, the conscience has been looked upon as the will of a divine power expressing itself in man's judgments, an innate sense of right and wrong resulting from man's unity with the universe, an inherited intuitive sense evolved in the long history of the human race, and a set of values derived from the experience of the individual. Psychologists also differ in their analyses of the nature of conscience. It is variously believed to be an expression of values differing from other expressions of value only in the subject matter involved, a feeling of guilt for known or unknown actions done or not done, the manifestation of a special set of values introjected from the example and instruction of parents and teachers, and the value structure that essentially defines the personality of the individual. As a practical matter, the consciences of different people within a society or from different societies may vary widely.

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conscience

a. the sense of right and wrong that governs a person's thoughts and actions

b. regulation of one's actions in conformity to this sense

c. a supposed universal faculty of moral insight

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conscience [′kän·chəns]

(psychology)

The moral, self-critical part of oneself wherein have developed, and reside, standards of behavior and performance and value judgments.

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Conscience

Aidos

ancient Greek personification of conscience. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 14]

Clamence

haunted by guilt because he failed to respond when aware that a girl had jumped or fallen into the Seine. [Fr. Lit.: Camus The Fall]

Cricket, Jiminy

dapper mite guides the callow Pinocchio. [Am. Cinema: Pinocchio in Disney Films, 32–37]

Elder Statesman, The

Lord Claverton ponders the shame of his past, personified by ghosts of his victims. [Br. Drama: T. S. Eliot The Elder Statesman in Magill IV, 262]

Godunov, Boris

Tsar suffers pangs of conscience for having murdered the Tsarevitch in order to seize the throne. [Russ. Drama and Opera: Boris Godunov]

Karamazov, Ivan

guilt for wishing his father’s death culminates in hallucinatory conversations with the Devil. [Russ. Lit.: Dostoevsky The Brothers Karamazov]

Solness, Halyard

plagued by awareness of his past ruthlessness and the guilt of defying God’s will. [Nor. Drama: Ibsen The Master Builder in Magill II, 643]

Valdes and Cornelius

Good Angel and Evil Angel; symbolize Faustus’s inner conflict. [Br. Lit.: Doctor Faustus]

Wilson, William

his Doppelganger irrupts at occasions of duplicity. [Am. Lit.: “William Wilson” in Portable Poe, 57–82]