Nowadays, a person needs a conscience. Conscience. What is this? What are the origins of conscience? Is conscience necessary in the modern world? We are stimulated by our meaningful connections, negotiations with others, happy and sad moments lived with other people - and sociopaths do not

Great is the power of Conscience!
(Cicero)

A person who has lost his Conscience does not distinguish between good and evil.
(I. Ilyin)

According to philosophical dictionary Conscience, a category of ethics that expresses the indissoluble connection between morality and the human personality, characterizes the ability of an individual to exercise moral self-control, independently formulate moral duties for himself, demand that he fulfill them, and make a self-assessment of his actions. This is one of the expressions of a person’s moral self-awareness.

In many European languages, the word "Conscience" etymologically means "shared knowledge." In particular, in Russian it consists of “so” (together) and “vedat” (to know). That is, the concept of “Conscience” presupposes knowledge by the entire society of the laws of society (naturally, in order to be guided by them in life!) and individual control over their implementation. At the same time, the punishment for failure to comply with moral standards is a person’s emotional experiences (remorse of Conscience).

A highly moral personality is characterized by constant feeling dissatisfaction with oneself, the desire for self-improvement, responsibility for the disorder of the world and the desire to participate in its improvement. In other words, Conscience is an individual’s awareness of his duty and responsibility to society. Formally, awareness acts as responsibility to oneself. The presence of Conscience is a criterion of high spirituality and morality of an individual. Morality, as we know, is a class concept. That is, what seems moral to the modern Russian nouveau riche does not seem at all to a respectable citizen! Obviously, when we talk about high morality and Conscience, of course, we do not mean the morality and Conscience of a thief, robber, destroyer of Russia! High morality is based on the eternal values ​​​​set out in the Commandments and Beatitudes of I. Christ, the corresponding suras of the Koran, in the teachings of Buddha and Confucius - people of whom the peoples of the Earth are proud, and whose names will live forever!

Russian encyclopedist V.I. Dahl interpreted Conscience as moral consciousness, moral instinct in a person, internal consciousness of good and evil; the secret place of the soul, in which approval or condemnation of every action is echoed; a feeling that encourages truth and goodness, turning away from lies and evil; involuntary love for good and truth; innate truth in varying degrees of development. He confirms his thoughts with Russian proverbs and sayings: “Conscience is timid, unless you drown it out,” “You can’t hide it from a person, you can’t hide it from Conscience (from God), “A good conscience is the voice of God,” “A rich man can’t buy his conscience, but his own.” destroys", "In whom there is shame, there is Conscience", "Eyes are the measure, the soul is faith, Conscience is the guarantee."

Thus, shame, according to Dahl, is nothing more than the external manifestation of Conscience (God) in the soul of a person! A person’s lack of shame indicates his lack of Conscience (God, the internal controller of his actions)!

The basis of any morality is the understanding of good and evil. Dobrym V.I. Dahl rightly considers this an act that promotes life according to the laws of high morality! The opposite of good is evil - everything that contributes to the violation of the divine commandments: “I am the Lord your God, and there is no God besides me,” “Thou shalt not make thyself an idol,” “Thou shalt not kill,” “Thou shalt not steal,” “Honor thy father and mother ...", etc.

In a sense, Dahl identifies God and human conscience! That’s how much importance he attaches to this human quality! The close connection of Conscience with religion, with God is evidenced by the presence of such a concept as “Freedom of Conscience,” meaning freedom of religion. And, indeed, what is not God - something constantly present next to a person, seeing everything and knowing everything about him, evaluating his every action, rewarding the good with spiritual joy and punishing the evil with mental suffering!? It seems that even the most convinced atheist would not object to such a God!

Obviously, Conscience is organically connected with the nature of man as a social being. Moreover, if shame characterizes the individual’s dependence on society, then Conscience, on the contrary, characterizes society’s dependence on the individual. This implies its enormous role in regulating social processes. The concept of “Conscience”, as it were, defines the ideal of the relationship between a person and society as this individual understands it. It is no coincidence that a morally impeccable person is called the Conscience of the people.

Conscience, of course, has a social origin, is determined by a person’s life and upbringing, that is, depends on his class affiliation. However, Conscience also has universal human content, based on universal human values. Differences in the understanding of conscience among different individuals stem precisely from differences in their value systems, and, consequently, in the understanding of good and evil.

People have been interested in such a quality of a person as Conscience since ancient times, understanding its most important role in the life of human society. In ancient Greek mythology, Conscience was personified by the Erinyes (goddesses of curse, revenge and punishment), who punish criminals, and the euminides-benefactors, who encourage people who repent of unseemly actions. The problem of Conscience was first posed by Socrates, who considered self-knowledge to be the source of a person’s moral judgment. The question of Conscience is one of the central ones in the ideology of the Reformation. Luther believed that God is present in the mind of every believer and guides him regardless of the church. However, already in the 17th - 18th centuries, philosophers began to deny the innate nature of Conscience and pointed to its dependence on public education, living conditions and interests of the individual, as well as its relativistic (relative) nature, while at the same time not denying the influence of the psyche. At the same time, idealistic ethics develops the idea of ​​an autonomous individual (inherent in liberal, bourgeois ethics), which determines its own moral laws independently of society. J.J. Rousseau, for example, believed that the laws of virtue are “written in the hearts of everyone” and to know them one must only listen to the voice of Conscience. E. Kant argued approximately the same thing. The modern understanding of Conscience lies in the unconditional recognition of it social nature and dependence on living conditions, as well as a person’s ideological and social position. The higher the spirituality of a person (the greater priority is given to spiritual values ​​in their common system), the higher the emotionality, social activity and consciousness, the greater the role Conscience plays in her life. The elimination of classes and class-antagonistic contradictions, the adoption of a single system of values ​​by the entire society, a common understanding of good, evil and the meaning of life can lead to a common understanding of Conscience, the ability to refuse to regulate the life of society with the help of legal laws and life according to the same moral laws for all; in a society in which the only manager will be the individual human Conscience. Of course this is ideal! But the ideal is something to strive for! Perhaps someday people will be ready for this! In different periods of the history of mankind in general, and Russia in particular, Conscience played a role of varying importance.

Religion has been involved in social morality, the moral education of a person (learning to live according to the laws of morality) for many centuries. Let us note that in addition to the obligatory cult component, any religion contains a moral one. By the way, one must only regret that Soviet authority, instilling atheism in society, refused the services of the church in the moral education of citizens. It seems that this was not just a mistake!

The role of the spiritual and moral education of the people at all times was well understood by progressive people all over the world. “There are many types of education and development, and each of them is important in itself, but moral education should be more important than all of them,” wrote V.G. Belinsky. On the attitude towards the education of citizens in Tsarist Russia This is evidenced by the fact that in a conversation about a person’s education they said not “he graduated (studied) at the university, cadet school, etc.”, but “he was brought up there!” At the same time, the priority of education over training in a profession was emphasized! Even the Russian ABC already contains instructive moral instructions for those beginning to master literacy. To better memorize the alphabet, the ABC uses an acrophonic method, when each word of a phrase begins with the corresponding letter (remember, for example, the phrase known from school times: “every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits”). The moral teaching contained in the ABC in modern Russian language sounds like this: “I know the letters. Writing is a property. Work hard, earthlings, as befits intelligent people! Comprehend the universe! Be true to your given word! Knowledge is a gift of God! Dare, delve into what exists comprehend the light!" It’s not for nothing that Mother Russia was called Holy Russia! The moral education of Russians, thanks mainly to Orthodox Church, was not comparable to the Catholic European! For example, Russian merchants most often did not draw up contracts and did not give receipts. We believed the word given by our partner! Not a single Russian pioneer declared himself king or tsar, but continued to remain faithful to his sovereign in the open land! It must be said that in Soviet times, the issue of highly moral education of the people was given worthy attention. Remember the October, pioneer, Komsomol, party, trade union, house committee organizations, people's squads, comrades' courts, officers' honor courts, etc.; TV and radio programs of the Soviet period, literature and art of those years. No matter what the “democrats” say today, all ideological work then was aimed at raising a kind, sympathetic person, a patriot and defender of the Fatherland, proud of the achievements of his Motherland. Yes, and there was something to be proud of. Remember the achievements of the golden time of socialism: the sixties - seventies of the last century! Achievements in the field of cosmonautics, nuclear energy, science and art, the leading position of the USSR on the world stage! In general, a universal system of values ​​was established in Soviet society; human conscience played an important role in the public consciousness and reliably kept the majority of Soviet citizens from antisocial acts. The absolute majority of our citizens adhered to common moral standards that corresponded to universal human values1 Eyewitnesses of those years will confirm that there was no such rampant crime in the country; we knew about prostitution and drug addiction only by hearsay (and not because it was hidden from us!), rendering sexual relations and sexual perversions on the stage of public life were considered immoral (intimate and should be intimate!); bullying and cruelty were rightly severely punished. Soviet people were reliably protected from informational, physical, economic and other types of violence by the full power of the state, which serves the majority of citizens. A respectable citizen constantly felt his strength and justice behind him, and an immoral scoundrel felt the inevitability of punishment! We never saw what happened to the morality of society after the bourgeois revolution of the early nineties even in our worst dreams.

The media is filled with facts of the immorality of modern Russian society. We will cite only the fundamental ones, the most blatant and appealing to the Conscience. Let's start with the family and the woman, as the first teacher in the primary school-family, where every citizen learns the basics of public morality.

The sexual revolution that came to us with market relations from the West, made a woman a commodity that satisfies the sexual needs of men. A product always requires advertising to be successfully sold. The advertisement was the image of a modern Russian woman, evoking animal passions in the consumer: female charms pumped up with silicone, naked or extremely tight; exposed navel, seductive makeup, erotic tattoos, etc. and so on. Potential buyers view all this as advertisements for sale. Fashion has made many of the fair sex corrupt. There is an abundance of goods on the sexual services market. Naturally, prices have dropped! Who today would read poetry to a woman or sing serenades?! The image of a beautiful lady - the prize of knightly tournaments - or a female friend of Soviet times, remained only on the pages of good old novels! It is a pity that women themselves do not realize that, of their own free will, they have lost power over men and turned into an inanimate commodity. What is easily available is never appreciated! Naturally, along with shame, the woman also lost her Conscience. But this is more than half of the entire society! That is, the controllability of half of the Russian population with the help of moral laws has significantly decreased. Remember how the attack of television advertising on our consciousness began: with a discussion of various types of feminine pads with and without wings, as if there were no other products in need of advertising! But, in fact, this was the beginning of the fight against our so-called constraint - modesty! But shame is an external manifestation of Conscience! The enemies of the Russian people were digging deep, destroying their traditional morality! I think it’s clear what kind of moral education children can receive from an unscrupulous, immoral mother!

The encouragement of shamelessness and dishonesty of the Russian woman led to the collapse of normal family relations and demographic crisis. Today the population of Russia is decreasing by one million annually! And the most important reason for this is the decline of morality and the loss of Conscience by society.

Family by definition Big Soviet encyclopedia- is a small group based on marriage or consanguinity, whose members are connected by a common life, mutual moral responsibility and mutual assistance. Marriage- a historically conditioned, sanctioned and regulated by society form of relations between a woman and a man, establishing their rights and responsibilities in relation to each other and children. It is clear that population growth and the physical and spiritual condition of new generations depend on the nature of marriage relations. Nowadays this concept has been shamelessly devalued. So in 2002, every tenth couple was in a civil marriage (cohabitation) (according to other sources - every fifth!). An unregistered marriage does not oblige you to communicate with relatives of the other half, to take care of the material well-being of your partner sex life . Nowadays, over a quarter of all children are born outside a normal marriage. Alas, the male half of Russian society is just as unscrupulous as the female half! And this affects not only the present, but also the future of the country - the children! Civil marriage is based on the principle: “I don’t owe you anything!” If special measures are not taken to restore lost morality, then the population of Russia will decrease by 40 - 50 million people by 2050! A strong, normal family is the basis of a healthy, prosperous society and state. It has long been known: destroy the family - the state will collapse! I don’t think the current authorities don’t know about this. Apparently, a strong Russian state is not the goal of their policy, otherwise some harmful freedoms would be limited in the interests of society! According to data published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there are 730 thousand street children in Russia today. Moreover, 80% of them have parents! In 2006, 160 thousand child participants in crimes were identified, 96 thousand children became victims of violence by adults. There are 5.5 thousand social institutions for teenagers and fifty special educational institutions for children in the country! Children's crime has acquired threatening forms: children's gangs have appeared. ORT informed the public about them on April 17, 2007. The program stated that adults are already afraid to walk the streets of Ulyanovsk. The city is divided into zones of influence of nine children's gangs. Parents patrol the school buildings where their children study. Teenage gangsters imitate the supermen of TV shows and real gangsters of the 90s. In Kazan, a gang of ten teenagers, imitating adult bandits, is engaged in robbery and racketeering. A fifteen-year-old teenager and a friend killed all the family members of his compassionate, loving aunt, wanting to take possession of the money collected to buy an apartment. The scary thing is that child bandits do not feel remorse for what they have done, no compassion, they are absolutely soulless! They completely calmly commit a crime, knowing that according to current liberal laws, punishment awaits them only from the age of 14. Is this reasonable? Only knowledge of the inevitability of punishment for what they have done keeps a person from committing a crime, be it criminal or moral! This truth is known to everyone except our liberal authorities! In Samara, eleven-year-old boys were recently put on trial who for a long time, living in the basement of a house as a commune, killed one of their peers just because he brought lice. It was once reported that schoolchildren killed their history teacher because he fundamentally assessed their knowledge! There is a great deal of such nonsense in the media, but the authors never talk about the main reason for the misfortune that befell us - the education of an immoral society, the practical elimination of such an important regulator of human relations as Conscience! Relying on the legal way of organizing life, complaining about the lack of laws, they “forget” that if the moral factor is completely excluded, then a policeman with a baton must be placed over each citizen, who would constantly monitor his compliance with the laws. In other words, human society cannot exist without unwritten rules of community life and control over their implementation by the individual Conscience of citizens. Nevertheless, with the blessing of the authorities, the Russian media continues to destroy traditional, time-tested morality, every minute sinking society deeper into the cesspool of immorality! Turning the process of education on its head and explaining the subject matter with the wishes of the people - consumers of information - publishers filled the shelves of bookstores and the airwaves with erotic (or porn -?) materials, low-grade bloody detective stories, stories about the beautiful life of bandits, speculators and prostitutes. Everything possible is being done to suppress human feelings among the people and awaken animal feelings! Is it any wonder that today ten-year-old children calmly talk about sex, impotence and abortion; that it is difficult to find a virgin among schoolgirls, that young people passionately kissing and arousing each other by touching the erotic parts of the body can be seen even on public transport; that natural needs are often performed in full view of passers-by, that eleven-year-old girls give birth, and the state has created shelters for young mothers, where they learn to play with living dolls! But shame is a manifestation of Conscience - the controller of Human actions!

The decline of morality, the loss of shame and Conscience affected not only the foundation of social life: family, women, children. This filth has already penetrated into all pores of Russian society and no amount of economic growth, not even a fabulous one, will ensure spiritual, truly human life in Russia! And it is unlikely that such a rise is possible with the loss of Conscience. In addition, good, pure relationships between people are, perhaps, more important for Man than economic prosperity!

For more than two thousand years, the life of human society has been regulated by two types of laws: moral and legal. Moreover, moral laws, tested by time, are more stable than legal ones (before the eyes of living Russians, legal laws have been replaced by the opposite ones!). It’s not for nothing that there is a proverb: “The law is like the pole. Wherever you turn, that’s where it goes!” Russian people have always been more guided by the laws of Conscience. That is why the Democrats are unable to make him law-abiding. And it won't be possible for a long time. It takes decades to make us Europeans! The morality of our society has been destroyed according to the instructions of “well-wishers” from the USA. So we got what we have! Russia can get out of the general crisis by returning to the people the historically established high morality and, above all, individual Conscience! And we shouldn’t pin our hopes only on the revival of religion. Modern means of communication play a more important role in educating the people!

Historically, it so happened that the French bourgeois revolution violated the unity of the most natural way of governing society - the monarchy - and its moral, spiritual basis - Christianity. For two centuries, liberals tried to establish a connection between bourgeois democracy, based on the ideas of individual freedom and selfishness, and Christian morality, based on love for one's neighbor - altruism. Obviously, this attempt was doomed to failure from the very beginning. You can't combine incompatible things! The egoism of the bourgeois and the altruism of the Christian in a single person are impossible in principle! The bourgeois cannot, leaving the gates of his factory, love the worker (whom he robbed all day) as himself! Naturally, Christian teaching began to be adapted for the ideological support of bourgeois democracy. The result was an era of moral freedom - or better yet, moral laxity! Quite a predictable ending! With a significant lag behind “civilized” Europe, this has come to us today! We can only console ourselves with the fact that in Russia for two centuries there were people who successfully resisted the corruption of their people! By the way, the Soviet social system was more consistent with Christian morality. The moral code of the builder of communism, in fact, repeated Christian commandments. Therefore, public morality was not comparable to the present one and people, for the most part, lived according to the laws of Conscience!

Today we have a choice before us: an immoral, soulless bourgeois society or the search for a new idea to replace the liberal one.

Conscience is an internal authority that exercises moral self-control of a person’s own views, feelings and actions.

Honesty, love, responsibility and wisdom.

According to the wording from Wikipedia, conscience is a person’s need to take responsibility for his actions. As a rule, conscience is realized through a feeling of internal discomfort when one’s own moral rules are violated.

Is conscience necessary?

Yes, it is necessary, and you need to not kill your conscience and prove that it is not needed, but learn to use it. Conscience is a powerful moral guide. A compass, for example, is also a landmark and it is easy to understand whether you are going there or not.

Conscience is a guideline, only a moral one. As a metaphor: special fields are created for horses, fenced with an electric fence. If the horse touches it, it will receive a slight but noticeable electric shock. It’s unpleasant and the horse doesn’t break through the fence. If there is no such fence, it is very likely that the horses will end up, for example, on the road, where they will be hit by a car or have an accident. It turns out that a tension fence keeps horses alive and makes them safe. Conscience becomes such a fence for a person. It’s up to him to decide how and where to place it.

As a summary, conscience combined with intelligence is a good moral compass. However, conscience without mind, or mind without conscience, is a compass without an arrow or without cardinal points.

How to use your conscience

The main principle is - don’t wait for your conscience to strike, think in advance. Conscience should work not in the past, but in the future. What's the point of torturing yourself for the past? The past will not change the future. A good conscience is not one that will gnaw at you for the mistakes you have made, but a good conscience that will protect you from making mistakes in the future.

How to do this?

• Don't argue with your conscience. Admit your mistakes, calmly, with dignity, at least to yourself. It's better to write it on paper.
• Think about what you will decide to avoid such mistakes in the future. Formulate a clear, understandable algorithm of action. To make it easier, imagine what you are going to tell your imaginary or real child. He will probably ask you many different questions - find the answer to them too. If the child, you think, will understand you, then you have formulated a good rule. The best way to be friends with your conscience is to make clear, conscious decisions for the future and follow them. Now, if you deviate from them, then, perhaps, conscience can become a good helper (and who else will tell you about this so clearly??).

Is conscience always the same?

Conscience is innate

Religious approach

Conscience- the organ of perception of God. Conscience is the memory of what a person is, to which world he belongs according to his idea, by whom he was created, how he was created and why he was created. Conscience is a spiritual, supernatural principle in man, and it is completely not of social origin. Of social origin is rather a contamination and distortion of conscience.

From the very existence of conscience it follows that conscience is free. When making an assessment and making judgments, conscience must be free from everything outside of it, external to it, that is, it is subject only to the action of God's grace, obedient only to the memory of the heavenly divine world. The manifestation of a clear conscience - the soul stands before God and is free from the influences of the world. A clear conscience is nothing more than freedom from the world. For true freedom of the human spirit is freedom from the world before freedom in the world. Conscience, enslaved by the world and seduced by the world, is no longer an organ of perception of the truth, and it does not judge, but is judged by a deeper and purer conscience. “Remorse in us is not commensurate with our misdeeds, but only with the virtue remaining in us.”

Humanistic approach

Conscience- an internal innate compass, this feeling of whether I have deviated along the way from the core goals, themes and motives of my life. Training can only develop a surrogate for conscience.

Conscience - acquired

Social psychoanalysis

Conscience- a set of instructions and behavioral programs of a moral nature, embedded in a person in childhood.

Household use

Conscience- this is what hits and gnaws when a person violates his inner prohibition. Self-condemnation and self-punishment for what you did “bad”, “evil”.

Both congenital and acquired

Conscience is based on empathy as a mechanism of the social instinct for preserving the species. Inhibitory mechanisms against harming a member of a pack or population exist in many animals. In human society, due to the ambiguity of the understanding of harm, conscience is overgrown with educated moral norms.

Origin of the term

The word “conscience” came into the Russian language along with other words of Christian vocabulary from the Old Slavonic свѣст, and then from the Greek conscientia (συνείδησις). There is nothing divine or religious in the word “conscience” itself. It consists of the prefix “co” (meaning the togetherness of something: community, cooperation, spy, competition, agreement, meeting) and “message”, that is, in fact, information about something, not necessarily from God or a Higher Power . The word “conscience” speaks of a form of conscious participation in a single system called society.

Formation of conscience

From the standpoint of social learning theory, Freud's hypothesis about the development of conscience is very convincing. During infancy, a child develops a strong dependence on parental love. “Loss of love” is as disturbing as other types of punishment. An important step in the formation of conscience is that the child must learn and internalize the rules and values ​​of his parents. For a conscientious person, his own mistakes lead to self-accusations and feelings of guilt, and not just to the fear of external condemnation and punishment.

The founders of social learning theory initiated a lot of research on the problem of the formation of conscience and tried to reformulate Freud's concepts. In addition to the previously put forward idea that childhood anxiety and stress are explained by parental disapproval, they developed the idea that in the process of internalization (translation of values ​​into the internal plane) parental disapproval is replaced by one's own feelings of guilt, and tried to find what events in childhood could interfere with this process.

A number of studies have found that the threat of loss of love is very effective and is directly related to the formation of conscience. A situation where one of the parents expresses disappointment or upset with the child's behavior is punishment. When a child is left alone in a room as punishment, this is also often perceived as a threat of loss of love.

There is a difference between physical punishment and love-oriented punishment. Physical punishment causes indignation, which does not at all contribute to the formation of conscience, and is most closely associated with children's aggressiveness. Boys are more often subject to physical punishment, and they are more likely to be aggressive than girls. Love-oriented punishment is more common when raising girls, and their moral sphere develops faster and their aggressiveness is less than that of boys.

Concept of conscience

Conscience is not the sum of behavioral skills. And not some kind of verbal teaching. But it is not a religion, and certainly not Christianity. Rather, conscience is an internal intuitive (not formalized) model of a holistic Big System(one's clan, tribe, social group, society, people, nation, humanity... and not only humanity, but as a part of all Nature, the Earth, the Universe...) in which there is a model representation of oneself as part of this Big System. But in this view, the emphasis is shifted towards the Big System, and not oneself personally, as if a view of the situation, a system of values ​​and priorities is taken precisely from the position of the System, and not one’s insignificant personality.

But the System is not God. God (the supreme and omnipotent creator of all things) does not need to protect his interests (after all, he is, like, omnipotent, he himself can take care of his interests). But, the ordinary (not supernatural, but simply natural) Large System such as Society (society), People, Country, Humanity, Nature (living and even inanimate) are more vulnerable and cannot always defend their interests on their own.

Therefore, acting IN CONSCIENCE (that is, from the position of the System), an individual can sacrifice his (personal) interests, and even the interests of some subsystems of the Big System, if the interests of the Big System require it. For example, to suppress the requests of some (and even one’s own) social group, clan, people, nation, all humanity for the sake of preserving wildlife... This is purely theoretical, but it would be according to Conscience.

Conscience and related categories

The “conscientiousness” approach is very close to the fifth position of perception: the position of the Angel. Is this the same thing?

The “conscientiousness” approach is different from the “love” approach. But what exactly?

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"what is its value today." Does it matter, or are other qualities a priority today?

An essay-reasoning on the topic “Conscience” is small step to realize how important this concept is in our lives.

Concept of conscience

It is difficult to give a precise definition of conscience, because each person understands this concept in his own way. But it is still possible to formulate a fairly correct definition.

Conscience is a person’s ability to formulate responsibilities and follow them. This is the ability to control and evaluate one’s actions from the point of view of moral standards.

Of course, over time, the concept of conscience has changed, but its essence remains the same: live in such a way that you are not ashamed of your actions.

But is this relevant today? An essay on the topic “Conscience” will help you find the answer to this question.

Humanity in the past

What is the role of conscience at different times? In what periods was it revered, and in what periods was it not a value at all?

In fact, there were many such “leaps” in the value of conscience. Take, for example, the example of the sale of indulgences in the 15th-16th centuries in Europe, when, having committed many unscrupulous acts, you could atone for your guilt by purchasing special paper.

This example suggests that there was a time when conscience was a bargaining chip. But there was another time when she was honored and valued above all else.

Nowadays

But what can an essay on the topic “Conscience” say about its significance today?

We can definitely say that its value is again in decline, despite the fact that just a few decades ago it was the highest moral standard.

Can people be blamed for this? Partly yes. It is important to note that at any time and under any circumstances there will always be people who are conscientious and unscrupulous, and this is normal. The only question is the number of those and other people.

Why is this moral norm no longer important today? One of the reasons is the moral decay of society in the pursuit of wealth. In the modern world, it is extremely difficult to achieve any serious material success, which forces people not only to work and achieve their goals in an honest way, but also to go over their heads, neglecting moral values.

The Necessity of Conscience

But does a person need a conscience at all? What if it only interferes and impedes the fulfillment of human will and development?

This is wrong. Conscience is what restrains a person from committing immoral and dishonest acts that may harm others. And if the sense of conscience is completely destroyed, then even the wisest and most honest person can begin to commit bad deeds. And this will lead to the complete destruction of society and well-being in the world.

Therefore, this moral norm must be present in every person and be above selfishness and dishonor. Only this will help normalize relations between people and return the value of good and benevolent deeds to society.

But how to take this path in order to return moral standards back?

It's actually quite simple. It is necessary, first of all, for every person to think about the meaning of conscience in his life and how important a place it occupies in his moral values. Having determined this, anyone can start making themselves better, because it’s quite simple.

We need to start thinking a little differently. Look around - the world is actually beautiful if you ignore the problems, most of which we exaggerate or create ourselves. Pay attention to those who need help. Don't pass by people who need support. Help once again, even if you are not asked for it openly.

Stop talking about people behind their backs, learn to appreciate what you have. Stop being jealous and try to get angry and complain about life as little as possible. And then you will notice how much you yourself have changed and how the world around you has changed.

It may be quite difficult to do all this at first. But in moments when it seems more difficult than before, re-read the essay on the topic “Duty and Conscience.” Even if you start with just one thing, you will already be on the right path and help not only yourself, but also society, begin to change. It is a mistaken belief that every person is able to influence another and make life around him much better. An essay on the topic “Conscience” encourages everyone to look into their soul.

Take care of your conscience. This is a value that will always be with you, and for which you will never be ashamed. We hope that the essay on the topic “Human Conscience” helped you understand many issues.

Does a person need a conscience?

In Shchedrin's fairy tale “Conscience Has Missed,” people begin to suffer when a judgment dictated by their conscience awakens in them. Wanting to quickly get rid of unnecessary “things”, “unhappy drunkards”, traders and representatives of the wealthy bourgeoisie re-gift, throw into the pockets of the inattentive, give away their Conscience to just anyone. It is no longer valuable to anyone - people would rather call it a curse, a terrible disease, because when it awakens, its owners, unclean-hearted people, suddenly feel vile and painful in their souls.

What if we imagine that the people lost all the remaining rudiments of conscience instantly and forever? It is impossible to describe this darkness into which everything in the world will plunge. After all, conscience is the first virtue, making us understand in time when to stop, otherwise something bad will happen.

A person without an internal regulator, which is conscience, is doomed to a difficult and terrible life. life path. He may mistakenly feel that his conscience can do nothing to help him. But it’s worth rethinking the end of the fairy tale “Conscience is gone,” she will not be timid and will want to manage everything herself,” and on its basis will arise: Strength of spirit, Justice, Faith in truth, so loved and sung by many honest and integral peoples, people will follow that, who wants to achieve the truth and is not afraid to pay for it with his life.

Does a person need a conscience? Let this person answer first: does she have the courage to own it?

(Olga Tsaplina, student of grade 8 “B” of MAOU gymnasium No. 1)

It seems to me that conscience is internal control. With its help, a person weighs his actions. How terrible the world would be if conscience did not visit humanity at least sometimes.

For example, when a person goes for murder or robbery, does he realize this? Certainly. But he drowns out his conscience in every possible way. Even if people remain unpunished and live with their sin, there are moments in their lives when everything comes to mind. This happens especially when death is near. Conscience burns the hearts of these people and makes them suffer.

What if a person has a conscience and it doesn’t sleep? He lives calmly and enjoys life. He is not afraid that he will have to give an account for his deeds and actions. There are very few such people and they are becoming fewer every day.

But a child is born with a pure soul, with a clear conscience. Probably, it also depends on the family what kind of character will be formed and what will happen to his conscience in the future.

(Zakorchemnaya Anna, student of class 8 “B” of MAOU gymnasium No. 1)

Conscience is one of God's wonderful gifts given to us from above. It reveals the deepest qualities of our essence. It cannot be denied that conscience is inherent in man by nature.

There is hardly a person who does not have a voice in his soul. Conscience is the first deepest source of responsibility. A person’s departure from conscience is fraught with dangers and troubles. This will continue until the return comes. The sooner and deeper humanity comprehends nature, the more clearly he will understand that without conscience neither life nor culture is possible on earth, and the more troubles and suffering will be prevented.

(Chabanenko Ekaterina, student of grade 8 “B” of MAOU gymnasium No. 1)

Conscience is a decisive driving force in personal development. Having a conscience helps you evaluate your actions in terms of right and wrong. You can often hear a person say: “You have no conscience!” This means that a person does not look back at his actions and does not take any measures to correct the evil committed. Conscience allows a person to be convinced of whether he is doing something good or something evil.

Everyone is familiar with remorse. Some people's conscience did not allow them to find a compromise with their parents, family and society as a whole. When you act well and your conscience is clear, you experience a pleasant state of mind, peace. Conscience is responsibility for one’s own thoughts and actions.

(Kabychkin Pavel, student of grade 8 “B” of MAOU gymnasium No. 1)

Conscience combined with intelligence -

it's a good moral compass.

However, conscience without mind or mind without conscience -

This is a compass without an arrow or cardinal directions.

What is conscience? Does a person need it? – these questions made me think.

“Conscience is a feeling and awareness of moral responsibility for one’s behavior and actions to oneself,” this definition is given in the dictionary, and I agree with it. However, having learned about the “heroine” from Shchedrin’s fairy tale, you might think that now conscience is really just an annoying “hanger.” Whichever way you look at it, there is nothing but trouble everywhere. The world is cruel, you need to adapt to it, and honor is not at all on this “list of necessary improvements.”

And the first discrepancy between conscience and a comfortable and unburdened existence is fully manifested at work. To get a promotion, you need to substitute someone else. What to do in this situation? This is everyone's moral choice. But more important are the actions of those whose professions, by their nature, are built on lies and influence the destinies of other people. For example, a lawyer. What will he do when defending a criminal: to the detriment of his career, but for the benefit of society, or as an excellent specialist?

It turns out that not all people need a conscience. (And for those who don’t need it, it would actually be very useful).

But on the other hand, how cruel and unbearable a “unscrupulous” world would be! Anyone has experienced dishonesty and knows how unpleasant it is.

Yes, living with conscience and a sense of duty to society is difficult, but necessary. After all, with the right attitude, conscience will not be a weight that you want to throw off your shoulders as quickly as possible, but a faithful assistant.

Although there is a problem here: everyone’s conscience is different - for some, this or that action is within the limits of the norm, while others are already screaming with indignation. Here it is important to correctly determine for yourself the boundaries of what is permitted, and act in life in such a way that there is simply no reason for mental anguish.

Having thought through all this, I come to the conclusion that conscience is still needed. But only if she does better, and she won't clogged and forgotten in the farthest corner of the heart.

(Frank Anastasia, student of grade 8 “B” of MAOU gymnasium No. 1)

During his life, every person at least once hears in his address: “You are shameless!” And what kind of person is then “conscientious” - “conscientious”?

A conscientious person is one who is aware of his actions, analyzes them, asks himself questions: “Am I doing the right thing?” “Have I offended someone?”

Everyone probably wants to be completely healthy, and conscience is a kind of medicine that helps you feel more confident and better. Being conscientious is in the interests of any person. You don't lie - you don't have to make excuses, because a conscientious person thinks first and then acts. You did something bad - you begin to suffer and suffer, an insurmountable fear settles in your soul, and something inside says that something terrible has been done, something that will not allow you to live in peace until you remember what you did and repent.

A conscientious person is internally superior to those who try to suppress the sprouts of goodness and piety within themselves. And life will sooner or later put everything in its place.

(Utkina Elena, student of class 9 “B” of MAOU gymnasium No. 1)

Conscience... It is she who torments us every day. Sometimes we want to get rid of this feeling, because it causes so much anxiety. But after a while this fuss in the soul disappears, and we feel free again. But for how long? After all, soon everything will start again and will continue again and again... and it will always be like this. The inner voice will constantly repeat: “You need to be responsible for your actions!” And then you sit down and think: “Why is conscience needed?”

Everything has its purpose. In Shchedrin's fairy tale, conscience is a useless, oily rag that no one wants to own. But why? After all, is she needed for something or is it just nerves? The fact is that the author of the fairy tale wanted to show that conscience exists so that a person understands when he does not act “according to his conscience.”

The heroes of the fairy tale do not want to worry about what they do and how they act, and therefore they drive away their unhappy conscience.

But it could happen that there will be no trace left of conscience? It’s scary to imagine what will happen then! Universal emptiness.

Each of us, sooner or later, will receive a good lesson for ever hiding our conscience away and not listening to it. It’s not in vain that Shchedrin wrote the following ending in his fairy tale: “A little soul grows, and conscience grows with it...”

It cannot leave our souls without a trace, because it was given to us from above at birth and “grows” with us.

(Ekaterina Kostenko, student of grade 9 “B” of MAOU gymnasium No. 1)

The most important decoration is a clear conscience.

Cicero

Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: Conscience is a person’s moral consciousness, expressed in the assessment of one’s own and others’ actions, based on a certain criterion of good and evil.

Everyone makes a choice for themselves: to take the path of evil, or to serve faith and truth until the end of their days.

Conscience has no unit of measurement; it cannot be counted. It can only be felt. IN modern world, where there is violence, rudeness, theft and corruption all around, we completely forget about what conscience is intended for, although this does not exempt us from responsibility, each of us is responsible for our actions. Forgetting about honor and conscience, turning a blind eye to rules and obligations, we violate moral boundaries without noticing it ourselves.

What motivates people when they lack reason? What to do if the soul goes against material values?

Everything is possible and depends on you. I think so, and I have several reasons for this. Firstly, a person must pass with dignity the tests destined for him by fate.

Secondly, no matter how trivial it may sound, the main thing is to help your neighbor in difficult times, not to offend the younger one, and of course respect the older one, treat people with kindness.

Conscience is the source of happiness and the guarantee of truth. Why do people forget about this? The warmest, most tender, truly living and sensual things must be invested in a child from birth. So that from the first years of his life the baby understands what is good and what is bad. How you can and even should do it, and what you shouldn’t even try. With age, of course, views on the same things change, but the moral core that has been developed since childhood must definitely make itself felt. Experience comes with time, just like intelligence, beauty, and material wealth. And conscience, it either exists or it doesn’t.

Today, kindergarten teaches us to be friends and work together, in a group, school gives us an idea of ​​adult life, with all its negative sides: resentment, pain, humiliation, betrayal and much more. And only then, after studying at a university, a person chooses his own way of life. The most important thing is to live in such a way that you don’t take bad example from others, but so that you are remembered as a worthy person, honest and conscientious.

(Victoria Petrosyan, student of grade 9 “B”, MAOU gymnasium No. 1)

What is conscience? Conscience is a feeling of responsibility for one’s behavior before other people. Unfortunately, in the modern world, many people have stopped “listening” to their conscience. That is why there are so many gross lies, hypocrisy and pretense around us. I believe that conscience is a lifeline for our society that we all must hold on to. What did the loss of conscience lead to?

Loss of conscience has led to global problems of our time, such as environmental problems.

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Owners large enterprises people who poison the air, soil, and water do not think about the damage they cause to nature. And human existence directly depends on the state of nature. So, polluting environment, the owners of plants and factories influence thousands of lives, and, unfortunately, they influence negatively. Prokhorych from the fairy tale by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “Conscience Lost” also influenced visitors to his tavern negatively by pouring alcohol to them. But when his conscience came to him, he realized that in his establishment he was ruining the lives of dozens of people and the only way out of this situation was to break all the dishes and pour out all the wine. Unfortunately, the “rogues” who destroy nature do not understand responsibility for their actions; they have “lost their conscience.” Maybe they should be advised to read M.E.'s fairy tale. Saltykov-Shchedrin?

To summarize, I would like to say that, unfortunately, conscience is not a modern word, it is not popular in society. But I would like to believe that there are more conscientious people, and together we can return honesty and kindness to our world.