Conscience

Conscience as a term has a range of related meanings which include: awareness of the nature and origins of rules of conduct, and consequent ability of the person to evaluate his own actions and intentions; avoidance of proscribed behaviour and tendency to act in meritorious ways; and feelings of obligation, guilt and remorse. It has even been argued that conscience is what distinguishes mankind from artificial or computer intelligences (although conscience has been postulated as theoretical design features for them too).

Different schools of thought differ on whether conscience and moral values are innate human qualities which are always present (possibly in response to mankind's relationship with God); or whether they derive primarily from childhood restrictions and prohibitions, conscience developing in adolescence from "must not" to "should not", and taking on the feeling of obligation. Conscience is generally understood to give intuitively authoritative judgments regarding the moral quality of a particular action.

One interpretation is that conscience is the awareness of responsibility arising in the experience of freedom, and it has been equated with the heart of the individual. Action in accordance with conscience then becomes action from an inner conviction, the establishment of which implies giving depth and precision to reflection on reality.