Do You Listen To Your Conscience?

Hugh Taft-Morales

Leader, Philadelphia Ethical Society

As children, we often experience an inner voice–messages from our psyche reminding us to act ethically toward others. Most of our lives, we try to have a clean conscience. Politicians talk of “voting their conscience.” What is this thing we call conscience? Although it is clearly aroused when we witness injustice, can we nurture it, so that it more consistently and smoothly guides our behavior? Can conscience be as effective at nurturing goodness as it is in identifying evil? In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, “When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?”