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What do you think about the relationship, if any, between retaining/creating memories and and the individual's conscience?
| There's a strong relationship between conscience and memory. | 19 | |
| There's SOME relationship. | 9 | |
| There's little or no relationship. | 4 |
To do that, we'd have to define and measure conscience, which is something nobody has ever done. If we could somehow prove that the part of the brain that handled conscience was the same part of the brain that handled memory (which I believe is the amygdala). That would be a strong sign that they were somewhat related.
If the conscience is something else, like controlled by hormone levels or neurotransmitters then that could also link it to memory if the same hormones and neurotransmitters affected both conscience and memory.
Would you say psychopaths have a diminished conscience? There is some evidence that they have a very selective memory, or an inhibited memory in some way. Which makes sense, because amygdala functioning is linked with psychopathy as well!
I don't know why I'm even trying to use the word "conscience" in a scientific sense, because it's basically impossible. It's spelled "con" "science", for God's sake! :P I'll just have to guess.
Provided the "conscience" exists in any measurable, scientific sense, then yes, I think there is a relationship. But with existence of the conscience is a pretty significant caveat.
EDIT: Oh my God I enjoyed this question too much.
Diminished conscience isn't actually diminished at all, rather it is consciously compartmentalised by the person. Ted bundy said that he had the same emotions and conscience as anyone else, that he was totally normal. He could do the things he did by locking the guilt away in what he described as "a crack, a black hole", the way most would actually describe compartmentalization. This is why he could function so easily in society, because he was as sane and normal as any of us. Everybody does compartmentalise bad things, we've all done bad things that we put out of our minds in order to "move on", psychopaths just do the same with REALLY bad things. If psychopaths (or anyone for that matter) had no conscience they wouldn't last five minutes in real life. This is also the reason virtually no serial killers have been able to plead insanity successfully, because the whole mind is very much intact and functional. The cold unfeeling display we see in them is more of a "putting on a brave face" typology. Serial killers are an example of people who "train" themselves not to think about "the reality" of the horrors they commit. That's what is so evil about them, it's a methodical choice, not a given ability. Another psychopathic killer named Tommy sells said that if he ever thought about the victims in "real terms" he'd kill himself from the shock. So the OP raises a VERY good point, as it does appear conscience and memory are directly attached to each other. "Diminished conscience" is a form of "selective memory". And just like morality, it is subjective.
What about describing how this applies to you personally and not trying to define it as a rule for everyone. Surely you know your own conscience and your own good and bad memories, your own emotional response and how and what you remember and why.
Ehhhh, I think if we take that there is a conscience (or we simply take that the conscience is just a descriptive term for a "moral feeling" as opposed to a single "thing" with a scientific definition like memory is), I guess I'd say my conscience is a relatively loud voice. A voice I firmly believe is governed by logic and reason, though, not random feeling.
I have a good short-term memory and I think I remember good and bad events/details (single events are details in the grand scheme of a long life) equally in the long-term, but the bad ones *possibly* with a slightly greater intensity. I don't know if I know why I remember, I'm afraid. It's probably to do with survival instinct, and that remembering dangerous or sad events allows us to avoid those scenarios, which increases our chance of survival. I don't know whether that would have any relationship with the conscience though, and I would imagine that applies to everyone.
I'm just a sample of one, anyway.
Ooh, great answer:D! Ha, I'm saying ooh quite a bit on this post. I really like the question, even though it is confusing me quite a bit (which is probably why I like it:P). Your answer makes sense of this whole thing much better than how my brain is making sense of it. Hehe, con science! Ok, I'm going to go be amused somewhere else now.:P Interesting comment, though.
I highly doubt that these two processes are linked. There are neurological disorders which can affect the brain's ability to store or recall memories. There are also neurological disorders which can change a person's behaviour and diminish their conscience. As far as I am aware these two types of disorders are not explicitly linked.
Without memory of experiences, conscious or unconscious, where is the individual's identity? How would the individual learn without memory? Memory is inextricably bound to consciousness, it can be argued that they are identical.
Neither can memory. That's not the point. How does one's conscience affect memory? Do you remember things more or less vividly, or not at all, depending on the emotional response said event or thing evokes, or doesn't evoke? What kinds of details do you tend to remember? Does this correlate? And so on.
Ooh, good question! Hmm, I'm not sure. Actually, I'm not quite sure what you mean by relationship. At first, I thought you just meant how the memories we have shapes our beliefs and what we view as being right and wrong. But I think I read it the wrong way. Hmm, I'm a bit confused. I'm going to have a think about this, see if I can wrap my head around it.:P