In the realm of ethical decision-making, the interplay between conscience and established laws, rules, and regulations is a subject of perennial debate. While legal frameworks provide structured guidelines for acceptable behavior within a society, conscience, often regarded as an individual’s internal moral compass, operates on a more personal and subjective level. The question arises: is conscience a more reliable guide than external laws and regulations in navigating ethical dilemmas? This inquiry delves into the complexities of moral reasoning, exploring the strengths and limitations of both conscience and legal frameworks in guiding human conduct and shaping the moral fabric of societies.
Answer
There are numerous basis on which ethical decisions can be made of which conscience is the prominent one. Conscience refers to the inner voice of a person, a moral compass to differentiate between right and wrong.
Laws, rules and regulations, on the other hand, are external guides providing a clear set of consistent and objective framework.
Conscience as a more reliable guide
- It enables one to perform morally courageous action
- E.g. – Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish refugees during World War II by employing them in his factories, driven by his conscience.
- Analysing and navigating complex situations
- E.g. – Edward Snowden exposed government mass surveillance programs, following his conscience’s call to reveal violations of citizens’ privacy rights.
- It enables one to challenge unjust laws
- Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus, questioning unjust segregation law in the US, which led to the American Civil Rights Movement in 1955.
- Quick and empathetic decision making
- e.g. poor homeless women without documents is given food by taking a conscience call, though she is not legally entitled to it.
Laws, rules and regulations hold significance as conscience has its limitations
- Consistency and Clarity – Legal frameworks provide a consistent set of rules that apply to everyone within a given jurisdiction whereas conscience is highly subjective and can create ambiguities if applied at mass scale.
- Vulnerability to Manipulation: Conscience can be manipulated or misguided, particularly when individuals are under external pressure or influenced by group dynamics.
- example – the phenomenon of groupthink witnessed during Nazi Germany, where individuals suppressed their personal moral judgments in favour of conforming to a group’s unethical actions.
- Limited Perspective- An individual’s conscience may not always consider the broader societal impact of their actions.
- For instance, a business person’s conscience may guide her to maximize profits, even if it involves harm to the environment and exploitation of workers.
As Gandhiji said, “There is higher courts than courts of justice and that is conscience.” Still, it needs to be tampered with the reason of the law so as to impart objectivity and ensure ethical decision making.
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