Marife Turkish Journal of Religious Studies

Abstract

Problems such as what conscience is, its nature, where it originates from (whether it is innate or is acquired later), what kind of value it has, whether it has a value in terms of being a moral sanction, whether it can be wrong, what the reasons that lead it to error are and ways to get rid of these errors, the duties of conscience towards man and the duties of man towards conscience are among the topics of discussion of moral philosophy.
The concept of ‘wejdan’ (conscience), which is defined as a secret feeling in the heart that enables people to distinguish between good and evil, is a concept of Arabic origin. The equivalent of this concept in western languages is ‘conscientia’ in Latin, and ‘conscience’ in French and English.
The most important self-control mechanism of human beings in doing right and good and staying away from wrong and bad is conscience. Conscience puts an inner pressure on the person to do good and avoid evil and brings people face to face with very strong inner responses such as peace of mind and feelings of guilt.
Although there are many approaches to the source of conscience, there are two major approaches. The first of these approaches argues that conscience is natural and innate. This understanding is largely based on a religious perspective. It is therefore assumed to be available to all humans. According to this approach, since the source of conscience is natural and divine, all people have a conscience originating from the same divine light. This means that there is no conflict between consciences. Accordingly, conscience is trained and developed with the knowledge of the same source and equipped with the same values.
The second approach to the source of conscience is based on the views that suggest that conscience is formed in a process, under the influence of various factors. While some of them base conscience on sense and experience, others base it on heredity, and some others on reason. As a result, three different views emerge from this approach. The first of these is the view expressed as the evolutionary view. According to them, conscience has a quality that develops through an evolutionary process, is handed down from ancestors to children, and is based on heredity. The second view is the view that bases the conscience on experience, which we can express as the ‘associative view’. The third and last view is the rationalist view that bases conscience on reason.
One of the two basic views on the origin of conscience, the idea that conscience is innate and natural emerges as a very dominant approach. The great majority of moralists and thinkers emphasize that conscience does not make mistakes and has an important value in terms of carrying a moral sanction power. Some moralists talk about the fact that conscience can fall into error because of factors such as ignorance, emotions, and tendencies. However, it is stated that a conscience that does not cut off its connection with the divine, that continues to be enlightened by revelation, and is trained and strengthened, will not make any mistakes and will in fact undertake the duty of a moral High Court.
The results of the 20th-century research on conscience based on different sources are like a reconciliation of past views. It is the general result of these studies that each of the factors that the previous thinkers and moralists put forward individually plays an important role in the formation of conscience.
Muslim moralists talk about the fact that just as the conscience has some duties towards the human being, the human also has some duties towards the conscience. For example, duties such as improving the conscience and ensuring its maturity, listening to the voice of conscience when it puts forward a solid and reliable view on good and evil, and searching for the truth of causes that result in peace or pain to the conscience can be counted among these duties.
Consciousness, which is expressed in philosophy and ethics as ‘a spiritual ability that distinguishes good from bad and evil’, is also defined as ‘the ability to appreciate and determine the moral value of human actions and behaviors. As an element in the definition, the power of choosing between good and bad, and the capacity of questioning and taking account of one's self is called ‘moral conscience’. Thanks to this conscience, a person appreciates or condemns both his own actions and the actions of others.
This study, after a partial explanation of the concept of conscience and elaborating on the moral value of conscience, tries to determine whether conscience has a moral value and whether it has a moral sanction power.