Conscience

[Dr. Goodword]

• conscience •

Pronunciation: kahn-chêns • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun (Mass, uncountable)

Meaning: That faculty of the human mind that guides our sense of morality, our sense of right and wrong.

Notes: It sometimes seems that conscience is an optional faculty of the human mind and that some people lack one. The word comes with two adjectives, conscienced "having a conscience" and conscienceless "not having one". The former may also be negated, unconscienced.

In Play: Our conscience is our knowledge of right and wrong: "Les Booker thought of publishing false tales about Penny Wise in the social media after she dumped him, but his conscience prevailed and he didn't." But some people seem to have none: "Buck Shott is a hitman who is devoid of conscience, remorse and compassion."

Word History: English took this word from Old French conscience, which inherited from Latin conscientia "joint knowledge, common knowledge", comprising con- "(together) with" + scien(t)s "knowledge, intelligence". Scien(t)s is the present participle used as a noun of scire "to know". Conscientia may have been a loan (part-by-part) translation of Greek syneidesis, made up of syn "(together) with" + eidesis "knowledge". If so this would suggest it comes from PIE weid- "to see, to know" underlying Sanskrit vetti "knows", Latin videre "to see", Armenian egit "found", Welsh gwyddor "science", Dutch weten "to know", German wissen "to know", English wit and wisdom, Norwegian vite "to know", Polish widzieć "to see", Russian videt' "to see", and Serbian videti "to see". Otherwise, if it comes from Latin scire, that suggests it comes from PIE skei- "to cut", a path that provides major semantic problems. (Today let's welcome newcomer Yelen Espelita to our midst, and thank her for today's sparkling Good Word.)

[George Kovac]

“Conscience” is an excellent and timely good word. We should make more use of it. Unfortunately, like “shame”, “conscience” is a concept that is losing its relevance in the current state of the culture.

Closely related to “conscience” (both etymologically and conceptually) is the word “scienter,” a word that probably has never been used outside of the practice of law. Cornell Law School posts this definition of “scienter”: “Intent or knowledge of wrongdoing. When a person has knowledge of the wrongness of an act or event prior to committing it.” The concept is often used as a standard of guilt, as in “The court found that the company had the requisite scienter for securities fraud.”

Alas, a defendant who has scienter may nevertheless be lacking in conscience.

[Slava]

Alas, a defendant who has scienter may nevertheless be lacking in conscience.

Unless, of course, we are talking about the science of the con!

Having a conscience goes hand in hand with being moral, wouldn't you say?