Print Conscience
Written by Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith, 2011
Our conscience is the ‘voice’ of our species’ instinctive moral sense that was acquired before the psychologically troubled state of the human condition emerged—BUT that was a truth we couldn’t safely admit until we could explain our present less-than-ideally-behaved, seemingly-imperfect, guilty conscience-producing, ‘good-and-evil’-afflicted HUMAN CONDITION!!
MOST WONDERFULLY, biology is now finally able to provide this dreamed-of, exonerating, ‘good-and-evil’-reconciling, ‘burden-of-guilt’-lifting, clear-conscience-producing, HUMAN-RACE-TRANSFORMING explanation of the human condition—and also the explanation of how we acquired our original instinctive moral sense in the first place!
The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines ‘conscience’ as our ‘moral sense of right and wrong’. Yes, on the subject of our moral conscience the philosopher John Fiske said, ‘We approve of certain actions and disapprove of certain actions quite instinctively. We shrink from stealing or lying as we shrink from burning our fingers’ (Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, 1874, Vol. IV, Part II, p.126). The philosopher Immanuel Kant was so impressed by our instinctive moral conscience that he had inscribed on his tomb the words: ‘there are two things which fill me with awe: the starry heavens above us, and the moral law within us’. Charles Darwin was similarly awed by the existence of our conscience, writing that ‘the moral sense affords the best and highest distinction between man and the lower animals’ (The Descent of Man, 1871, p.495). The poet Alexander Pope, however, was not so impressed by our instinctive moral nature, pointing out that ‘our nature [is]…A sharp accuser, but a helpless friend!’ (An Essay on Man, Epistle II, 1733). Yes, our conscience has been ‘a sharp accuser, but a helpless friend’—it has criticised us aplenty when what we really needed was sympathetic, compassionate, reconciling, redeeming and rehabilitating understanding of our ‘good-and-evil’-afflicted human condition. WHY, when the ideals are clearly to be cooperative, selfless and loving, are we humans the complete opposite, namely competitive, selfish and aggressive? In fact, why are we so ruthlessly competitive, brutal and even murderous that human life has become all but unbearable and we have nearly destroyed our own planet?! Why have we moved from a state of morality to a state of immorality? In short, HOW DO WE EXPLAIN THE HUMAN CONDITION??
Thus, the two great questions about our conscience—which can now at last be answered—are how did we acquire our ‘awe’-inspiring but [un]‘friend’[ly], mercilessly-critical conscience; and why don’t we still live in accordance with our moral instincts—why did the human race ‘fall from grace’, become corrupted, lose its innocence, become immoral, stop obeying our instinctive moral conscience?