What are different aspects of conscience? Differentiate between the intuitive and empirical conceptions of conscience.

Conscience can be defined as a person’s moral sense to determine a conduct as right or wrong. It acts as a guide to one’s behaviour. As per medieval philosophers there are two aspects of conscience viz. “conscientia” and “synderesis.” While “synderesis” refers to the ineradicable and infallible basis of conscience in human nature, “conscientia” refers to the more particular judgments we make about our actions. As per modern philosophers the two aspects of conscience are “sentimentalist” and “rationalist”. Rationalist refers to conscience that is based on the voice of reason for judging one’s action, while sentimentalist is based on one’s feeling to decide whether a course of action is correct or incorrect.
Difference between Intuitive and Empirical conception of conscience
Intuitive conscience is the ability to know about something directly based on instinct without any logical reasoning, while empirical conscience is subjective in nature and is based on practical experience.
In large societies incest is a taboo. The taboo is more of generated from the intuitive conscience.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy the first social reformer of India stood the test of time and firmly opposed Sati. It was his empirical conscience which strengthened his resolve to firmly deal with the opposition he encountered and finally take the fight against sati to logical end.

Topics: GS-IV: Ethics and Human Interface