The detailed psychological analysis of cases of conscience and the
study of its genesis are of no essential ethical interest, except as
they show us that the sense of duty is not an ultimate, irreducible
element in our consciousness, or make clearer to us its function and
value. Conscience is the general name for coercion upon conduct from
within the mind. The important thing to note is the useful purpose,
which, in its so widely varying forms, it serves. Whatever its sources
or its exact nature in contemporary man, it is one of the most valuable
of our assets. To a more explicit statement of its value we must now
turn. What is the value of conscience?
It would seem, at first glance, as if the development of reason should
make conscience unnecessary. When we are able to discern the
consequences of our acts, formulate and weigh our motives and aims,
what need of these vague pre-rational promptings and inhibitions? Why
not train men to supplant a blind sense of duty by a conscious insight,
a rational valuation of ends and means? Is not reason, as it has been
recently called, "the ultimate conscience"? [Footnote: G. Santayana,
Reason in Science, p. 232; where also the following: "So soon as
conscience summons its own dicta for revision in the light of
experience and of universal sympathy, it is no longer called
conscience, but reason."]
(1) Conscience is valuable on account of our ignorance.
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