THE ROLE OF ACTION IN FORMATION OF MORAL CONSCIENCE
Human being is a thinking and acting being which means that he reflects on his doing. Every normal person is able to judge if an act before him is good or bad.
Before and after every action the conscience play a role of being a counsellor or a judge. But everyone judge it according to his path, inclination and his profits which could be material or political profits. Thinking intellectually on this capacity of man to judge, many problems appear: what is the origin of this capacity to judge? How is the action be qualified good or bad? What is the true foundation of this capacity which directs the man in his inclination?
It is true that the question about the origin of moral conscience was discussed by many thinkers in the past.
A French thinker Rousseau in his book Emile considered this faculty as a divine instinct, an inner assured guide, which is antecedent to the raison in the individual.
A sociologist Durkheim, on his turn, showed that even the ideas of good and bad are linked to the values which are transmitted from one society to another, from one generation to the other. Our society and our education influence significantly our manner of judging.
This conscience has its roots in liberty, responsibility and action. It does not determine itself in the way of what is good or bad, but according to what is right and just to be done. In regarding on what is present and considering attentively on what is ought to be done, the divine instinct stimulate the man to act.
In the history of ethics of action, we see that in the ancient times, the man tried to maintain his due place in order to sustain his harmony with the cosmos. In mediaeval times, the man submitted himself in the hands of transcendental reality; and the salvation of man resides in loving others for his greater good; it is the era dominated by Christianity. With modernity, he searched for the equality and elaboration of his universal rights in order to live well on the earth. The contemporary time came with the equity and the ethics of gestation and watchfulness in order to preserve the biosphere and the medium for the possibility of the future.
In brief, a tree is known on its fruits, in other words, act follows the being. More the human being meet the reality, more his conscience is developed.
This faculty is not totally acquired but a man born with all possible capacities which helps him to develop this faculty. The actions educate his conscience little by little until it becomes mature enough.
