CONSCIOUSNESS or CONSCIOUSNESS: meaning, difference and examples

The terms conscience Y conscience they are concepts that refer to different ideas. According to the Royal Spanish Academy of the Language, these terms are interchangeable in some cases, but not always. With regard to your reference to the moral sense, we exclusively use the term "conscience." However, when we speak of its more general meaning as perception or knowledge, we can use both terms interchangeably.

In the following Psychology-Online article we will see if we should use conscience or consciousness, depending on the situation. We are going to expose the meanings of both terms, clarifying their differences with examples and how, in their development, they interact with each other.

Index

1. Meaning of consciousness
2. Meaning of consciousness
3. Difference between consciousness and consciousness with examples

The consciencemake reference to ethics, morals and human virtues. It would be possible to differentiate between two types of consciousness within the human being:

1. Spiritual awareness: it is about universal consciousness, the inherent ability of the human being through which he is able to authentically discern between good and evil based on the true human values, those that are part of its essence, beyond cultures, traditions and religions.
2. Ethical or moral awareness: it is that conscience that shapes the personal moral values ​​that will condition, finally, our discernment between what we should or should not do. This awareness is built through personal experiences, which is why it is strongly conditioned by the social system in which one lives.

In this way, the development of ethical conscience will condition our spiritual conscience, manifesting some acts or others depending on our culture, traditions and religion.

The ideal state of the human being, according to some spiritual disciplines, supposes the manifestation of behaviors governed by spiritual consciousness. In this state, there is no type of ethical or moral conscience since human beings are governed by universal moral values. However, the differentiation between states, cultures, traditions and religions has led to the creation of different moral consciences determined by the different values ​​in force in each social group or cultural.

The conscience, for its part, supposes the function of the human mind that receives the information, processes it and retains it or not to create new knowledge or restructure existing ones, thus increasing your level of consciousness about yourself or about the world that you surrounds.

According to Georges Vithoulkas, in his study of the definition of conscience Y conscience, the process of consciousness is determined by four elements:

1. The five senses
2. Imagination and emotion
3. The reasoning ability of the mind
4. The memory

This is how through the five senses, consciousness perceives stimuli internal and external, makes use of imagination, emotion and knowledge stored and he judges and reasons to finally store it in memory as new knowledge, integrate it by re-structuring the existing knowledge or discard it because it is not considered useful. Here we explain how memory works.

Increasing the degree of consciousness does not imply the mere accumulation of knowledge. However, this element constitutes an important aspect for raising awareness as long as there is an attitude of inquiry and discovery of superior knowledge and more deep. It is this internal motivation towards greater knowing that leads to the opening of consciousness and its elevation to higher levels.

Consciousness and consciousness are, as we have discussed, different concepts in terms of their conceptual meaning. Although, the RAE allows the use of both terms in the cases in which we refer to the process of awakening or awareness (or awareness).

To facilitate the differentiation between both concepts, we will resort to several examples that clarify the terms:

• We talk about conscience when we say "he has a clear conscience", "his conscience of him does not allow it", "you have no conscience", etc. All these expressions refer to behaviors that manifest ethical attitudes of the person who emits the conduct or of his interlocutor. As we have said, these are conditioned in the first place by the spiritual conscience and, later, by the ethical or moral conscience created according to the culture or social system inhabited.
• The term conscience We use it in the following cases: "you have become aware of the situation", "you are aware of what is happening", "it is important to become aware of society", and so on. In these situations, the term refers to acquiring and internalize knowledge of something and awaken to that new reality, created from that new knowledge.

A progressive, responsible and deep awareness of the reality that surrounds us (includes self-knowledge and knowledge of the exterior in a global and integrated way) leads us to the awakening of the "spiritual consciousness" and to the rejection, by contrast, of the "spiritual consciousness ethics". Conscious work, deliberate for the expansion of consciousness, will bring us closer to the full integration of true consciousness. This involves a complex and deep work and occurs in spiritual people who need to access the supreme truth and decide to renounce low and worldly passions for the benefit of their spiritual development full. In this article you will find more information about the spiritual intelligence.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Consciousness or consciousness: meaning, difference and examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Cognitive psychology.

• Portilla, I. (2013). The difference between consciousness, consciousness and Consciousness. Excerpt from the book "The realization of the spirit". Web Isaac Portilla.
• Vithoulkas, G. (2014). Consciousness and Consciousness: The Definition. International Academy of Classical Homeopaphy. Journal of Medicine and Life. Vol.7 1st Issue, January-March 2014.