ok, so another thing we learned about in religion. acording to my teacher, and the Catholic church, we are all born with a conscience. i completly disagree.
if we are all born with a conscience, then how come people can be so different? some people have no problem with lieing, but a huge problem with cheeting. personaly, i have a problem with neither.
i think that fact that not all consciences are the same is proof that we are not born with a conscience. another example is psychopaths. according to the church, there conscience is just off corse. again i disagree. in no way am i saying psychopaths are bad people, or atleast that not all of them are, but i find it quite obviouse that they dont have any sort of conscience.
as for me, i dont have much of a conscience. i would compair mine to Machiavelli's. the end justifys the means, and if you cant be both, its better to be feared than loved.
i have a theory that conscience's are formd by society. i think your environment also has alot to do with them.
i think thats really all i can say about consciences.
i do want to clear up that i am not out to disprove all of Catholics teachings, but i do tend to focus on Catholics beliefes. sence i was raised Catholic, and am tought Catholic views each day, it tends to be what i know best. ok Peace!!!
And So It Goes (2014)
9 years ago
4 comments:
Hi there, Spys
A day at home is definitely allowing you time to think and write :-)
I agree with you: people are not born with consciences. Conscience is an aspect of the mind, and I'm not sure I'd be comfortable saying that any part of the mind is present at birth. Conscience in particular seems to develop rather later, as I think any observation of a schoolyard will show. Maybe there's a capacity for conscience that is present at birth, but to me that's not the same as conscience itself.
As a consequence, I think conscience is necessarily formed by a person's upbringing, environment, social influences, whatever you want to call it. It seems to require two things in me: an understanding that other people suffer pain in the same way that I do, and a desire to avoid causing pain in others by my actions.
I'm not sure that we know much about Machiavelli's conscience. The book for which he's best known, Il Principe, was written as advice to princes and other rulers in medieval Europe, on how they should behave in order to secure their positions and advance their causes. I don't think we can say that it's a reflection of how he believed he should live his own life. He's another interesting read at Squashed Philosophers.
Take care
Mark
hey Mark, i agree with just about everything you say haha i wish my teachers would too. when i compair myself to Machiavelli, i mean to the side he reveals in his book. although i have never read the book, from the quotes i have gathered, i feel like i have a good feel for the book if that makes any sence. its one of thoes books i've been wanting to read along with the art of war.
although it might not be how he should live his own life, shouldent he aspire to be a powerful ruler? i guess i made that assumption too soon, and see what you mean. haha i love talking about philosophy! Peace!!!
I'll address this when I have more time, kid... I'm very tired right now- long day of carpentry work and now, because I want to do good by you, I will reserve my comments till later.... I don't know, maybe it's because I have a conscience about these things... lol luv, tman<3
haha nice Tman... nice =) Peace!!
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