ABSTRACT
Considerations of conscience highlight the individual and the social aspects of decision-making in social work. Discussion of 'conscience' connects the study of social work with projects in understanding and action far wider than social work itself. 'Conscience' has been systematically considered at great length by a large number of philosophers and theologians, and the nature of conscience has been very variously interpreted. Conscience is not a faculty, but an activity, namely the actual application of moral science to conduct. The super-ego, in Freudian theory, does not register moral feelings, but feelings evoked by some threat to security, feelings of anxiety, fear and dread rather than remorse. 'Conscience' is best seen in terms of content and of function. Conscientious judgments are conceptually connected to a person's own behaviour, but the reflection and the origin of the material from which the judgments are made derive from social sources in a wide sense.
