There remains then only
one's own inner feeling or conscience. Good conduct awakes in this a
feeling of pleasure, bad conduct a feeling of pain. And by this alone
can we discriminate. Now let us further ask. What sort of conduct
produces in our conscience pleasure and what sort of conduct induces
pain? If we investigate a great number of special cases, we shall
recognize that conduct which proves advantageous to the individual, to
the family, to the state, and finally to mankind, produces a good
conscience, and that conduct which is injurious to the same series
give rise to a bad conscience. If a collision of interests arise, it
is the degree of relationship which determines the influence of
conduct on the conscience. As, for instance, among the clans in
Scotland, a deed which is advantageous for the clan produces a good
conscience, even if it be injurious to the state and to mankind.
The conscience is one of the mental faculties of man acquired by
selection and rendered possible by the construction and development of
the commonwealth of the state. Conscience urges us to live rightly,
that is, to do those things which will help ourselves and our family,
whereby our fellow creatures according to their degree of relationship
may be benefited.
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