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Conscience is a feeling of responsibility for all one’s actions and words, not only to others, but first of all to oneself. Having committed a bad act, a person experiences “pangs of conscience” or “remorse.” However, not everyone makes the right moral decisions. Why is it so important to live according to your conscience? What examples of conscience are most common in life?
I also faced my conscience. This happened when I tore up my parents' favorite wallpaper in the hallway. Initially, my fear overcame my pangs of conscience and I blamed our dog for all this. But then, when I saw how mom and dad deprived Sharik of his favorite games and melancholy began to appear in the dog’s eyes, I felt very sorry for him and I decided to confess everything to them. But my parents did not scold or punish me, they simply explained to me that it was impossible to do this, because it was very bad. But this is not the only case when conscience greatly torments the soul. Two more similar incidents happened to me.
The second incident happened on the river. My friend stole a bicycle from a little boy, his parents made a fuss throughout the village, because this bicycle was a very expensive purchase for their family. Knowing who stole it, I didn’t want to tell it, but still my conscience haunted me and I decided to tell everything. And this incident became an example for me and a lesson for my friend.
There were several other cases, I’ll tell you now.
I saw an example of conscience on the street when I was waiting for the bus home. A man passing through a crowd of boys and girls dropped his wallet; there were many people in this crowd, but only one girl picked up and gave his wallet to the man, although everyone in the crowd saw that the man had lost it. This indicates that this girl has a conscience, no matter how her company is.
I also saw another similar case on the street. An old grandmother slipped on the ice and fell, and a guy was walking nearby, he just walked by, but after taking a few steps he turned around and helped the grandmother get up. This is what conscience can do to people. The grandmother was so grateful to him that a smile appeared on the guy’s face because he helped her.
My friends told me about such an incident with conscience. My friends went to the river to swim, and there was a group of small children, they were probably about seven years old. They were planning something bad, as I understood, they wanted to steal a soccer ball. This whole company went to fulfill their plans, but one boy, who looked younger, stopped and did not decide to go with them.
All people have a conscience, some just don’t know how to use it.
What is conscience definition for essay
According to Dahl's explanatory dictionary, the concept of “conscience” means a person’s ability to understand morality, morality, control his actions within the framework of law and morality, demand that he fulfill them, and give an account of his actions.
Dostoevsky F.M. said that this feeling is the action of God in man. Suvorov A.V. complemented this idea with the fact that it gently touches the soul and illuminates a person, follows him everywhere, helps him realize his mistakes, and prevents him from doing wrong.
The ancient Greek philosopher Democritus defined conscience as shame before oneself.
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Arguments from literature for an essay on the topic of conscience
The topic of conscience is relevant in literature. In almost every work there is a hero who tries to live by it.
For example, in V. M. Shukshin, the main character Egor is a former criminal who brought his mother a lot of misfortune. When, after many years of life, he meets his mother, he cannot admit for a long time that he is her son.
Subsequently, his friends want to return him to the path of crime, but he refuses, without experiencing pangs of conscience, even under pain of death.
Arguments on the topic “Conscience” from the novel “QUIET FON” by M.A. Sholokhov
Example 1. AKSINYA and GRIGORY MELEKHOV.
Despite his father's anger and threats, Grigory makes his way to Aksinya every night. “So extraordinary and obvious was their crazy connection, so frantically they burned with one shameless flame, people without conscience and without hiding, losing weight and blackening their faces in front of their neighbors, that now for some reason people were ashamed to look at them when they met.”
Example 2. Pangs of conscience during war. (GRIGORY MELEKHOV)
For a long time Gregory imagined the first enemy he had killed. “He experienced that first fight unusually often in his dreams, and even in his sleep, burdened with memories, he felt the convulsion of his right hand, clutching the shaft of the pike; waking up and waking up, he drove away sleep from himself and shaded his painfully closed eyes with his palm.”
And other Cossacks, Gregory notes, changed after the battle. Prokhor Zykov, who survived under the hooves of the cavalry, returned from the hospital, still hiding pain and bewilderment on his face; the other swore heavily and obscenely at every opportunity; the third “laughed absurdly, his laughter was involuntary, gloomy. Changes took place on every face, each in his own way nurtured and nurtured the seeds sown by the war.”
Petro, whom Gregory met during the respite given to their regiment after the battle, also changed. He confesses to his brother: “I, Petro, have lost my soul. It’s as if I’m somehow half-baked... It’s as if I’ve been under a millstone, they crushed me and spat me out. <…> My conscience is killing me. I stabbed one with a pike near Leszniow. In the heat of the moment... It couldn’t have been otherwise... Why did I cut this one down?”
When Natalya Melekhova irritably and jealously reproaches Grigory for revelry and relationships with women. To his sincere words: “Conscience!... What kind of conscience is there when your whole life has been stolen... You kill people... It’s unknown why all this mess...”, Natalya only answers rudely: “You screwed up, got accused, and now you’re turning everything away to war... A little later Damn, did I take you in stride?” And the deeply offended Gregory bitterly replies: “There’s nothing more to talk about with you.”
Example 3. Pangs of conscience due to the death of his wife (GRIGORY MELEKHOV)
Grigory suffers not only because he loved Natalya in his own way and got used to her in six years, but also because he feels guilty for her death. If during her lifetime Natalya had carried out her threat - taking the children and going to live with her mother; If she had died there, fierce in hatred of her unfaithful husband, then Gregory would not have felt the severity of the loss with such force, remorse would not have tormented him so violently. But from the words of his mother, he learned that Natalya had forgiven him everything, that she loved him and remembered him until her death. This increases Gregory’s suffering, burdens his conscience with an incessant reproach, and forces him to rethink the past and his behavior in it.
The problem of conscience in literary works
This problem is often raised in literary works because authors love to talk about it. It is enough to remember the novels, stories and stories of great authors, and you will immediately find a couple of examples for discussion.
Thus, in the novel War and Peace, Nikolai Rostov loses an astronomical amount of money to Dolokhov, although he promised his father that he would never play at the card table again, since the family was experiencing serious financial difficulties.
At first, Nikolai does not feel guilty, but then, realizing that his father will not leave him in trouble, he tearfully promises himself and him that he will not do this again.
In the story by V. Bykov Sotnikov, the main character, before being executed by the Nazis, tearfully recalls an episode from childhood, where one day he takes his father’s pistol and it shoots at home. Mom, who came running into the room, realized what happened and tells her son to tell his father everything.
Arguments on the theme “Conscience” from the play “AT THE BOTTOM” by M. Gorky
Example 1. Manifestation of conscience (ASHES)
For the night shelters, Ash is his own man. Ash has money, and he gives his comrades, at their request, for a drink: “We must give it quickly... before you ask for a ruble.” “No one here is worse than you,” he declares to Klesh, who despises the night shelters. And to Kleshch’s objection that people live here “without honor, without conscience,” he replies: “Where are they—honor, conscience? On your feet, instead of boots, you can’t put either honor or conscience... Honor - conscience is needed by those who have power and strength.” And yet Ash has a conscience. He rejects Vasilisa's offer to kill her husband, despite the promise of big money.
Example 2. About conscience (TICK)
Kleshch treats the inhabitants of the shelter with contempt: “...What are they like, they live without honor, without conscience... I am a working man... I’m ashamed to look at them... I’ve been working since I was a small child...” He strives to escape from the shelter: “I’ll get out... I’ll rip off the skin, and I’ll get out... Now... my wife will die... I lived here for six months... but it’s still like six years...”; “I have nothing to talk to them about...”
Works about conscience for children
Every cartoon, every fairy tale talks about her. From an early age, children are taught to do the right thing, choosing morality over lies and betrayal.
Thus, in the cartoon and book Dasha the Traveler, the main character, together with her friend Shoe, explores the world and helps everyone who needs help.
However, in their way there is always the cunning fox Rogue, who is always trying to decorate something, committing a shameless act. Then Dasha tells the Crook that stealing is wrong, and he gives back the stolen goods and sincerely asks for forgiveness.
V. M. Garshin A man of heightened conscience
Another name for the fairy tale Attalea princeps. She talks about a young palm tree, which in Garshin’s fairy tale was not conscientious. She wanted freedom at any cost, so she did not consider any other trees.
Having grown large and breaking the roof of the building, she began to die. At the end of its life, the palm tree admitted that it was wrong and took away water and space from other plants.
Victor Dragunsky The secret becomes clear
The fairy tale by Victor Dragunsky tells about a boy who really did not want to eat porridge and threw it out the window while his mother was not looking. He told mom that he had finished everything.
She praised her son and said that they were going to the Kremlin as a reward for a good appetite. A little later, a man knocks on the door.
Mom opens it and sees that this man is covered in porridge. When the mother cleared the newcomer, the boy hid and did not want to approach her. But later he overcame himself and asked for forgiveness, remembering the lesson.
Dmitry Panteleev Honestly
In Leonid Panteleev’s fairy tale, the boy promised the children not to leave during the game.
But the guys cheated and ran home, but the main character remained standing, responsibly keeping his promise.
Seeing the boy's trouble, the man did not turn away, but decided to help, acting in good conscience, and took the child home, making sure that he did not throw his promise to the wind.
Vladimir Zheleznyakov “Scarecrow”
In the story Scarecrow, the main character, being a good friend of Dima Somov, takes the boy’s guilt before his classmates upon herself.
Dima himself does not say that he is a traitor, but remains silent when the children begin to mock the girl.
At the birthday party, he still tells the guys that the girl is not to blame for anything. And in the end, all the children ask for forgiveness for tormenting the girl.
Arguments on the topic “Conscience” from the novel “FATHERS AND CHILDREN” by I.S. Turgenev
Example 1. Lack of conscience (BAZAROV)
Following his “feelings,” which, according to Bazarov, determine the essence of human actions, he violates elementary morality without the slightest hesitation (kisses Fenechka). True, remembering “another recent scene” (with Odintsova), Bazarov felt “ashamed... and contemptuously annoyed.” However, the reason for this annoyance is not so much dissatisfaction with himself, but because Pavel Petrovich became a witness to his action. Bazarov does not even think about the pride of other people. “We need the Sitnikovs,” he tells Arkady. “I, understand this, I need idiots like that.” It’s really not for the gods to burn pots!..” “We need to break others!” Not a shadow of doubt arises in Bazarov that others are not his equal. “When I meet a person who would not give up in front of me, then I will change my opinion about myself.”
Example 2. Manifestation of conscience (NIKOLAY PETROVICH KIRSANOV)
Having joyfully and tenderly met his son, Nikolai Petrovich seems to shy away in his presence and becomes overly fussy, talking at length about his worries around the house, although he feels that his son is of little interest in this subject. Finally, Nikolai Petrovich, clearly embarrassed, proceeds to the most important and delicate circumstance, switching to French in order to hide the conversation from the servant and coachman. “...You, of course, will have the right to condemn me. In my years... In a word, this... this girl, about whom you have probably already heard...” At the same time, Nikolai Petrovich blushes and feels remorse. Feeling in his son “a feeling of condescending tenderness... mixed with a feeling of some kind of secret superiority,” he experiences mental pain, “something stabbed him in the heart... But he immediately blamed himself.”
For Nikolai Petrovich, Fenechka is “not a frivolous whim,” and he is relieved that he has explained himself to Arkady. And yet something confuses him. “His heart began to beat... Did he at that moment imagine the inevitable strangeness of the future relationship between him and his son, did he realize that Arkady would have shown him almost greater respect if he had not touched this matter at all, did he reproach himself for weaknesses - hard to say; all these feelings were in him, but in the form of sensations - and even then unclear; but the color didn’t leave my face, and my heart was beating.”
Examples of conscience from human life
If a student does not remember the second argument from literature in the exam, then he can always give a real-life example. This could be any moment from his or the life of his loved ones or friends.
For example, he can talk about how he lied to mom or dad, saying that he had to go to school later, or that he was sick and could not go to an important event, or about the first time he stole something from a store and then returned it. stolen back.
You can also remember any charitable deeds and briefly talk about them: about helping the homeless, about feeding homeless animals, about helping the elderly, etc.
Also, a fragment from any film or its characteristics can act as an argument from life. For example, just remember the events of the film The Boy in Striped Pajamas, where the hero is tormented by the fact that he has bread and water on the table, the best toys, and his peer does not even have a roof over his head.
Arguments on the topic “Conscience” from the story “The Enchanted Wanderer” by N.S. Leskova
Example. Refusal of conscience, muffling the voice of conscience (PRINCE)
The Prince's nature is revealed in comparison with Ivan Severyanych. He once tells him: “I myself am the same as you, dissolute,” and then contradicts himself, asserting: “You are not like me, a whistler...” The inconsistency of his nature is also visible in his deeds: he grabs onto one thing at a time , then for another. “But as soon as they got down to it,” notes Ivan Severyanich, “the prince was carried away by this passion.” With enviable persistence, he collects money to buy a cloth factory, tricks and deceives those around him, and shows off his imaginary wealth. Absorbed by some passion, the Prince forgets everything else (“Please leave my conscience. By God, I have no time for it now”).
Examples from history
Almost every great person in history was conscientious.
Thus, during his lifetime, the Apostle Peter was persecuted for spreading Christianity by the Roman commander Herod and spent most of his life behind bars. They could not execute him because he was a citizen of Rome.
When rumors reached that Peter was teaching his doctor Christian doctrine, a decision was made to execute him.
Before this event, Peter saw how the son of a Roman general was suffering, and said that he could help him if he was released from custody for a while. He cured his son of a terrible disease.
He, realizing that he could save Peter’s life, as a thank you, does not dare to do this and suffers from this all his life.
Arguments on the topic “Conscience” from the drama “BORIS GODUNOV” by A.S. Pushkin
Example 1. Manifestation of conscience (IMPOSTER)
Despite his unscrupulousness, the Impostor is capable of experiencing the pangs of a bad conscience. Approaching the Lithuanian border with his army, the Pretender envies Kurbsky, who is ready to fight for a just cause: “How happy he is! like a pure soul / Played out in him with joy and glory.” The Pretender himself “rides quietly with his head bowed.” He is tormented by the thought that Russian blood must be shed, that he has “called his enemies to Rus'” and is leading them along the “cherished road” “to red Moscow.” But the Pretender finds a way to justify himself, being a hypocrite before Kurbsky and himself: “But let my sin fall not on me - but on you, Boris the regicide!”
Example 2. The pangs of a bad conscience. (BORIS GODUNOV)
By portraying Boris Godunov as guilty of the murder of Tsarevich Dimitri, Pushkin follows Karamzin’s version. But never once, even alone with himself, does Boris Godunov directly admit to the crime he committed. His disturbing dreams (“…for thirteen years in a row I kept dreaming of a murdered child”) and the pangs of a guilty conscience caused by bloody visions are incriminating:
And everything feels nauseous, and my head is spinning, And the boys have blood in their eyes... And I’m glad to run, but there’s nowhere to go... terrible! Yes, pitiful is the one whose conscience is unclean.
He also turns pale at the simple-minded story of Patriarch Job about the miraculous relics of Demetrius.
The source of the tsar’s severe mental crisis lies not only in his awareness of the futility of all his labors, but also in the torment of a bad conscience. The depth and strength of Boris Godunov’s experiences testify to the extraordinary nature of his personality, his powerful soul. Moreover, this monologue is not “in public”, but has a confessional character.
Tormented and suffering, he seeks consolation and support not from earthly forces, Boris Godunov turns to magicians and fortune-tellers, turns to religion. When the king orders to gather an army, he orders not to touch the monks: “Let them pray for us...” In the hope of atonement for his guilt before God, he asks the Holy Fool to pray for him. But nothing can calm his troubled conscience.
Arguments on the topic “Conscience” from the comedy “OUR OWN PEOPLE – WE WILL BE COMBINED” by A.N. Ostrovsky
Example 1. Imaginary conscience. (BOLSHOV)
Bolshov experiences a real shock when he realizes that his daughter and son-in-law have betrayed him. It was then that he remembered about conscience, and about sin, and about Judas’ betrayal. He knows that he has committed a grave crime, and reminds the young people what the price of their current well-being is: “After all, I am malicious - deliberate... After all, they will send me to Siberia. God! If you don’t give me money, give it for Christ’s sake.”
He realized that now the power is Podkhalyuzin, and not he, Bolshov, who had hitherto kept everyone in fear and obedience. He suffers not because he committed an immoral act, but because he was deceived by a recent boy who was in his service, that he, Samson Silych Bolypov, allowed himself to be fooled, that he was so cruelly deceived, relying on “his people.” “The slave beats herself if she does not reap cleanly” - this is the conclusion not of a repentant sinner, but of a deceived rogue.
Example 2. Lack of conscience. (PODHALUZIN)
Through deference, hypocrisy, feigned humility and zeal, Podkhalyuzin achieves special favor with Bolshov, which he knows how to use for his own benefit. Having learned about the owner's intention to deceive creditors, Podkhalyuzin immediately conceived his own scam. Cleverly playing on Bolshov’s vanity and self-confidence, he practically pushed him to the decision to declare himself insolvent and with his own hands to give everything (capital and property) to him, the clerk. “Don’t doubt me,” Lazar assures Samson Silych. Podkhalyuzin acts cunningly and carefully - he persuades the solicitor Rispozhensky to formalize the whole case in such a way as to become the actual owner of Bolshov’s fortune. He is well aware that a legal crime can put an end to an economic career, so he thought through all the details of his participation in Bolshov’s criminal action. They entered into an oral agreement with the solicitor (“I’ll give you two thousand for this same item, sir”), but at the same time sternly warned: “Only, Sysoy Psoich, don’t turn your tail back and forth, but walk carefully, you got it.” to this point and turn on this line.” Podkhalyuzin leaves no traces in the history of the “benefactor’s” bankruptcy. He did not give written promises to the matchmaker Ustinya Naumovna, who upset Lipochka’s wedding with the noble groom.
The prudent Podkhalyuzin remained clean before the legal law, violating moral laws. Bolshov was right when he said about Lazar: “He’s a smart guy, just blink at him and he’ll understand. And if he does anything, you won’t be able to put your finger on it.” He really did everything “in the best possible way”, and even deceived Samson Silych himself. Podkhalyuzin rejects doubts about the legality of his actions from the very beginning: “They say you need to know your conscience! Yes, it’s a well-known fact, you need to know your conscience, but in what sense should you understand this? Everyone has a conscience against a good person; and if he himself deceives others, then what kind of conscience is there!”
Arguments on the topic “Conscience” from the story “THE PIT” by A.P. Platonov
Example 1. A deal with conscience (SAFRONOV)
In general, Safronov is the most controversial figure in the pit. He often makes deals with his conscience. For example, with caustic irony he blesses Kozlov, who is striving for power, after he threatened Safronov with exposing his past mistakes. “Farewell,” Safronov told him, “you are now like an advanced angel from the working staff in view of his ascension to official institutions...”
Example 2. VOSCHEV, a conscientious person
Voshchev understands that the pit builders do not know the truth. “They said that you know everything in the world... but you just dig the ground and sleep! I’d better leave you... I’m still ashamed to live without the truth.” The awareness of the “untruth” of the business that the artel is engaged in made Voshchev feel sad.
Voshchev is one of the few in the pit who is not influenced by political slogans. He is “unreasonably ashamed of the long speeches on the radio.” True, unlike Zhachev, he does not protest against the oppression of the soul, he only becomes more and more sad.
Voshchev cannot participate in construction, for the sake of which their last property is taken away from the peasants.
Despite the bright sun, Voshchev’s soul is sad.
Arguments on the topic “Conscience” from the novel “HERO OF OUR TIME” by M.Yu. Lermontov
Example 1. Uneasy conscience (GRUSHNITSKY)
Then Pechorin, testing Grushnitsky, tightened the conditions of the duel - on the edge of the abyss, where the opponents would take turns, even a slight wound would be fatal. Grushnitsky hesitated: shooting under ordinary conditions, even at six steps, he could aim at Pechorin’s leg, easily wound him and satisfy his revenge without burdening his conscience too much; now he had to either shoot in the air, or become a murderer, or abandon his vile plan.
Grushnitsky's face changed every minute - Pechorin put him in a difficult position - now he was deprived of the opportunity to satisfy his revenge by slightly wounding Pechorin, his conscience should now be restless. He eagerly began to convince the captain of something, obviously, to abandon their plan, his blue lips trembled. The captain didn't listen to him.
Pechorin invited him to pray to God - Grushnitsky refused, advising him not to care about his soul more than about his own. Pechorin urged him to listen to the voice of conscience, but the captain interrupted him. When Pechorin caught their deception and the captain did not dare accept his challenge, Grushnitsky admitted, “embarrassed and gloomy,” and for the first time did not listen to the captain’s instructions.
Example 2. Agreement with conscience (PECHORIN)
Continuing the test of Grushnitsky, Pechorin decided to provide him with all the benefits, expecting generosity from him, but Grushnitsky’s pride and weakness of character had to win. Pechorin made an agreement with his conscience - he gave himself the right not to spare Grushnitsky if he was not generous.
Arguments on the topic “Conscience” from the novel “THE CAPTAIN’S DAUGHTER” by A.S. Pushkin
Example. A conscientious person -Petr Grinev
Kindness and gentleness, conscientiousness and sensitivity, the ability to judge people impartially, without class arrogance, and at the same time a heightened sense of duty and honor have been ingrained in Grinev since childhood. His mother is a kind and warm-hearted woman, and his father, despite his well-known dryness and harshness of character, is a straightforward, honest and noble man. His parting words to his son are indicative: “Farewell, Peter. Serve faithfully to whom you pledge allegiance; obey your superiors; Don’t chase their affection; don’t ask for service; do not dissuade yourself from serving; and remember the proverb: take care of your dress again, but take care of your honor from a young age.”
On the way to Orenburg, in Simbirsk, Grinev joins the cheerful and carefree life of the hussars, but a drunken party with captain Zurin, during which Grinev loses a hundred rubles to the hussar at billiards, ends in deep shame and repentance.
Arguments on the topic “Conscience” from the novel “WAR AND PEACE” by L.N. Tolstoy
Example 1. ANDREY BOLKONSKY's pangs of conscience
Having recovered, Andrei returns to Bald Mountains; his arrival coincided with the birth and death of his wife, who left him a son. A heightened conscience does not give Andrei peace, and on the face of the dead little princess he reads: “Oh, what and why did you do this to me?” Andrei feels “that he is guilty of a guilt that he cannot correct or forget.”
Example 2. Pangs of conscience during the war NIKOLAY ROSTOV
Pursuing the enemy, Nikolai, for the first time hitting a man with a saber, wounded a French officer. “The moment he did this, all the excitement in Rostov suddenly disappeared.” He “galloped... experiencing some unpleasant feeling that squeezed his heart, something unclear, confused, which he could not explain to himself, was revealed to him by the capture of this officer and the blow that he dealt him.” Both the flattering words of the boss and the promise of a reward did not eliminate this unpleasant feeling. He was “still embarrassed and somehow ashamed.” All that day and the next, Nikolai was “silent, thoughtful and focused... he drank reluctantly, tried to remain alone and kept thinking about something.” “So this is all that is called heroism? And did I do this for the fatherland? And what is he to blame for?.. And how scared he was!.. Why should I kill him? My hand trembled. And for me the St. George’s Cross...” Nikolai reflects.
Example 3. Pangs of conscience MARYA BOLKONSKAYA
All of Tolstoy's heroes make mistakes in life, suffer, and go through deep spiritual suffering. The princess does not avoid them either. “And what was even more terrible for Princess Marya was that from the time of her father’s illness (even almost earlier, perhaps even when she stayed with him, expecting something), everyone who had fallen asleep in her woke up , forgotten personal desires and hopes. What had not occurred to her for years - thoughts about a free life without the eternal fear of her father, even thoughts about the possibility of love and family happiness, as temptations of the devil, constantly floated in her imagination. Princess Marya is horrified by what is happening in her soul, she is tormented and ashamed, but cannot overcome herself. After all, “she had never been so sorry, she had never been so afraid of losing him. She remembered her whole life with him, and in every word and action of his she found an expression of his love for her.”
Example 4. A man of great conscience - PIERRE.
The marriage of Pierre and Helen was not happy. He brings Pierre suffering and disappointment.
As a man of great conscience, he was not inclined to place all the blame on Helen. First of all, Pierre blames himself. He was faced with the main questions that he constantly asked himself: “What is bad? What well? What should you love, what should you hate? Why live, and what am I? What is life, what is death? What force controls everything? - he asked himself. And there was no answer to any of these questions, except one, not a logical answer, not to these questions at all. This answer was: “If you die, everything will end. You’ll die and you’ll find out everything—or you’ll stop asking.” But it was also scary to die.”
Conscience as a psychological problem
The term in question is considered an ethical category, but is studied by various sciences: philosophy, sociology, psychology. The latter's interest in it increases when the personality quality of conscience is transformed into a psychological problem.
For example, the Swiss psychiatrist K. G. Jung attributed the analyzed category to the individual’s ability to critically evaluate actions and thoughts from a moral standpoint. He argued that this is a conscious adherence to a spiritual value system. This concept is also characterized by the presence of a connection with the individual’s self-awareness and volitional self-regulation.
Conscience can be conditionally divided into two tiers: subjective value judgments and objectively existing ones. Pangs of conscience appear when subjective values are affected. Simply put, what an individual correlates with his own person, what is good and bad for him. If objective values are violated, when another subject acts immorally, then the individual himself may feel disappointment, regret, may be angry, but will not be tormented by feelings of guilt.
Conscience is expressed in various forms: as a complement to reflection, in dreams, as an affective reaction during the course of mental processes (for example, a feeling of fear that arises when a situation comes into confrontation with the values of the individual).
The voice of conscience may not always be recognized by the individual himself. The internal auditor often speaks in dreams or manifests itself in anxiety, worry, fear, and guilt. At the same time, systematic discrepancies with conscience, intentional or unconscious neglect of its hints lead to psychosomatic deviations and neuroses.
So, to the question: “what is conscience,” psychology answers that it is a personal quality that is connected with the individual’s subjective understanding of his own duty, moral standards and responsibility to society and individual human subjects. Conscience is a product of the social in the individual. Animals lack this quality.
Thus, pangs of conscience represent a person’s dissatisfaction with himself, disappointment in himself, a feeling of guilt, and fear. They are a response to actions that contradict the internal moral foundations of the individual.
The analyzed quality becomes a psychological problem when it transforms into a feeling of guilt. Constant pangs of conscience lower self-esteem, rob a person of self-respect, and often even drive him into depression.
Conscience is part of the soul. When people are in harmony with their own values, they experience satisfaction. And when they constantly transgress their own established boundaries of morality, then suffering and torment become their constant companions.
Conscience, first of all, acts as a virtuous principle in a person, contributing to his moral self-control and moral and ethical self-esteem, and also, its severity and hostility awaken fear in a person and intensify his pangs of conscience, which is dangerous, as already written above, by the emergence of mental disorders.
The internal confrontation between the desire to satisfy a person’s aspirations and the disciplining attitudes of conscience is the breeding ground on which neuroses breed.
Arguments on the topic “Conscience” from the play “THE BRITISH” by A.N. Ostrovsky
Example. Lack of remorse, agreement with conscience (PARATOV)
Saying goodbye to his bachelor life, Paratov is going to “spend his last days as cheerfully as possible.” His mood improved significantly when he learned about Larisa's upcoming marriage. This news completely frees him from any remorse and finally frees his hands: “This is even better. I feel a little guilty towards her, that is, so guilty that I shouldn’t even show my nose to them; Well, now she’s getting married, which means the old scores are over... It’s very nice of her; Still, my soul is a little lighter.”
The nature of conscience - what is it?
If we break this word down into its components, we get “co” and “message” - message or co-action. There is a version that conscience is the voice of God, that is, his message, an auxiliary indication that you are doing something wrong .
It often happens that you want to take revenge on the offender, punish him according to his deserts, but an inner voice dissuades you, calls you to be higher than this, kinder. And the closer a person’s soul is to the Creator, the clearer and louder he hears this voice.
The main function of this feeling is to regulate behavior, distinguish good from evil, grace from sin. This is a kind of censor that prevents a person from becoming bad by committing bad deeds.
Personal experience shows that very often conscience cannot be controlled and acts independently. No matter how you justify your impartial act to yourself, your conscience will still prove the opposite to you.
It will gnaw, torment and torment until you admit to yourself that you acted vilely and repent of your act. And only then will relief come.
Anthropologists, studying the human species from different times and peoples, came to the conclusion that a sense of conscience is inherent in all people. Even the most culturally backward tribes know what conscience is.
It follows from this that it is a universal rule of morality at any level, that is, it is present in every person to one degree or another, regardless of his upbringing, education and status.
Arguments on the topic “Conscience” from the novel “CRIME AND PUNISHMENT” by F.M. Dostoevsky
Example 1. Justifying the lack of conscience with great goals. (RASKOLNIKOV)
The doctrine of two types of people.
The first category - “master of the present” - preserves the world and increases it numerically. People of this category, “conservative and decorous by nature,” love and “are obliged to be obedient.” They “only exist in the world to... push themselves and finally give birth... to a somewhat independent person.” The second category - “master of the future” - moves the world and leads it to the “goal”. As a rule, people of this type - “legislators and founders of humanity” - demand “the destruction of the present in the name of the best.” They have “the right to allow their conscience to step over ... “for their idea” “through blood”, to eliminate “... ten or a hundred people in order to make their discoveries known to all humanity.” All of them “break the law” (it is “not written” for them) and by their nature must “certainly be criminals.” Such “brilliant people” are born one at a time “from millions, and great geniuses, the consummators of humanity, perhaps after many thousands of millions of people on earth.” Raskolnikov’s theory, which allows “blood according to conscience,” according to Razumikhin and Porfiry Petrovich, is worse than the “official,” “legal” permission to “shed blood.”
Example 2. Raskolnikov’s pangs of conscience.
Sonya Marmeladova became Raskolnikov's conscience. He was ashamed in front of her and tormented her for this “with his contemptuous and rude treatment.” When finally “he was resurrected” and Sonya realized that he “loved her endlessly,” she—living “only his life”—“was so happy that she was almost afraid of her happiness.”
Example 3. SONYA MARMELADOVA’s pangs of conscience because of her position and lifestyle.
Sonya herself considers herself a “great sinner.” “Humiliated, murdered, disgraced and ashamed,” she humbly awaits her turn to say goodbye to her dying father; afraid to sit down in the presence of “ladies”; doesn’t even dare to look at Dunya. The thought of “her dishonorable and shameful position” has long tormented Sonya to the point of “monstrous pain.”
Do no evil or do good?
What is the basis of conscience? Feelings of shame and guilt . After all, it is through them that parents encourage their offspring to make the right decisions and actions. “Why didn’t you give up your seat to the girl? Aren `t you ashamed? Bad boy”, “Don’t do this, because they will think badly of you!”, “How can you do this? No shame, no conscience!
As a result of such messages, conscience is strengthened in us. You have done a good deed and your soul feels good, because you correspond to the principles that were so diligently drilled into you in childhood.
And if our thoughts and actions directly contradict what we were taught, then we become ashamed - “I’m not what I should be, which means I’m bad” or guilty - “my action is terrible, I have no forgiveness.”
When parents overdo it in their upbringing, the child develops one of the types of distorted conscience described above. Where is the line between an adequate conscience and its ugly form? How to raise a moral person and citizen and not go too far?
In my opinion, there is only one way out: to instill this feeling not through negative experiences (you are bad, you should be ashamed), but through positive ones (look how the girl with whom you shared the candy smiles).
Arguments on the topic “Conscience” from the novel “DOCTOR ZHIVAGO” by B.L. Pasternak
Example 1. The pangs of a guilty conscience (ZHIVAGO)
Soon, love for Larisa powerfully invades the doctor’s life. Love seems predetermined to him, and he is unable to fight it. At the same time, he painfully experiences betrayal of his wife and feels like an “uncaught criminal.” He still values his family, madly loves Tonya, is ready to defend his wife’s honor, and at the same time he himself becomes her offender. It is especially difficult for Zhivago because the ideas of “free love” are alien to him. “Talking and thinking about such things seemed vulgar to him. In life, he did not pick “flowers of pleasure”, did not classify himself as a demigod and superman, and did not demand special privileges and advantages for himself. He fainted under the weight of a bad conscience.”
Example 2. Conscience in war. (PAMFIL PALYKH)
For example, the eternally depressed and gloomy Pamfil Palykh admits to the doctor that he is tormented by the blood of an innocent young cadet, shed by him back in the February revolution: “I can’t get one piece out of my head, I hit one piece, I can’t forget. Why did I kill the boy? He made me laugh, he made me laugh. He shot me out of laughter, foolishly, for no reason.” So, from a conversation with Pamphilus, Zhivago learns the name of the murderer of Commissar Gintz and is once again surprised by the greatest secret of life on earth, where everything is interconnected, and thousands of destinies are closely intertwined into one inextricable knot.
A lot of time has passed since then, but at night Pamphilus is kept awake by his restless conscience, and he keeps imagining the station where he committed a serious murder. Palykh is afraid that not only he, but also his beloved wife and children will have to pay for the crime he committed. Not wanting to hand over his family to be desecrated by the whites, Pamphilus, in a fit of melancholy, hacked everyone to death.
