What about our conscience?

The story about a puppet that wanted to be a boy, Pinocchio, tells us the difficult part of being an inanimate object trying to be animate. Although magic comes to the rescue to help a piece of wood to act like a human, there was something neither magic nor technology could give: a conscience. That is why we see Jiminy Cricket as the one to help Pinocchio learn the basics to be human.

Nowadays we think that conscience is a little voice as Jiminy that tells us what is wrong or right, but never forbbids us from acting. It is like a compass, a moral compass, that is always pointing to what’s good. To do good we only need to listen to that voice inside us, as Socrates talks about it in his Defense or Apology, when he says that no matter what he does that voice is always with him and he can choose to listen to it.

Whenever we act, we know what we are doing even if nobody else does. Also we know what will come from our actions and we will have all its consequences. Our conscience is that: what we know and knowing it, we want to act. For example, I want to eat a chocolate, but I also know my stomach aches, so if I eat it I will be sick, and if I don’t eat it then I won’t get worse. And that is how our Jiminy works; not just in things concerning our health, but in each and every thing we are about to do.

We can also ignore it and pretend nothing happens because what is in front of us may seem worth it. So if we are tempted to do something, we may isten to our inner voice and see if it is worth the consequences. Pinocchio teaches us that, to do things right, we may neet to take a moment to reconsider it.