Moral sense

The individual intuitively and voluntarily knows the moral way he or she should act in a given situation. One has a sense of individual responsibility and of need to respond with fairness, self-control, duty and sympathy to the feelings and experiences of others. According to political scientist James Q Wilson, this awareness is not a result of conditioning but a fundamental characteristic of human nature, although it can be encouraged or discouraged by and by society as a whole. Thus conditions can be created where moral sense is dulled or sharpened, in particular by emphasizing social justice and individual responsibility and also by clearly punishing those who have failed to honour their obligations or have offended against the moral code.