What is a conscience?

[Reverend_Smitty]

I had a random thought occur to me last night and it got me thinking. How do we get a conscience? Are we born with one or is it a learned trait? If it is a learned trait then how can you account for someone with a rather shitty upbringing but still manage to have a sense of "what is right"? or on the flip side, a person with a great upbringing that turns out to have no "sense of right".

I suppose I should define conscience before I open up a debate, according to dictionary.com: 1. The awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one's conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong 2. A source of moral or ethical judgment or pronouncement 3. Conformity to one's own sense of right conduct

Any thoughts about this?

[TahitiNut]

1. The sense that someone's watching ...

... even if it's only you.

Or, as I ask myself, "Will I like myself in the morning?"

[Reverend_Smitty]

2. How do we get that sense?

are some people just born with it or do we learn it from somewhere...you know like Catholic guilt?

[TahitiNut]

3. I got it by spending time alone.

I discovered I was still there.

While I don't remember not having it, I do remember getting it.

[trof]

4. I think we learn it.

No expert, by a long shot.
It starts the first time mommy lays a little guilt trip on you, which is not necessarily bad.

[TahitiNut]

5. Can anyone "lay a little guilt trip on you" ...

... if there's nowhere to lay it? How can that possibly have any impact if there's no conscience?

[Reverend_Smitty]

7. Exactly...

which leads me to think that some people just have a born in sense of what I guess you could call richeousness.

[FarLeftRage]

6. It is something that

reich-wing repuKKKe wingnuts will never have, because they can't develope one...

[Z_I_Peevey]

8. Quite a question.

I'm interested in others' take on this, since I have pondered this very thing to no conclusion.

Those who display no conscience...are they truly bereft of a sense of right and wrong, or have they killed it? That is a big question for me.

[Reverend_Smitty]

9. It was one of those things that popped into my head...

at 3am last night as I was trying to fall asleep. I'm glad others ponder the same things

[johnnie]

10. I believe you are born with it

There are a lot of things going on in your mind at the time of birth and sometimes you are reprogrammed. Some people have a strong sense of conscience and retains that through their life, others lose what they have and resort to a "learned" sense of living.
Interesting word though con-science.