What is a conscience?

I had a random thought occur to me last night and it got me thinking. How do we get a conscience? Are we born with one or is it a learned trait? If it is a learned trait then how can you account for someone with a rather shitty upbringing but still manage to have a sense of "what is right"? or on the flip side, a person with a great upbringing that turns out to have no "sense of right".

I suppose I should define conscience before I open up a debate, according to dictionary.com: 1. The awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one's conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong 2. A source of moral or ethical judgment or pronouncement 3. Conformity to one's own sense of right conduct

Any thoughts about this?

... even if it's only you.

Or, as I ask myself, "Will I like myself in the morning?"

are some people just born with it or do we learn it from somewhere...you know like Catholic guilt?

I discovered I was still there.

While I don't remember not having it, I do remember getting it.

No expert, by a long shot.
It starts the first time mommy lays a little guilt trip on you, which is not necessarily bad.

... if there's nowhere to lay it? How can that possibly have any impact if there's no conscience?

which leads me to think that some people just have a born in sense of what I guess you could call richeousness.

reich-wing repuKKKe wingnuts will never have, because they can't develope one...

I'm interested in others' take on this, since I have pondered this very thing to no conclusion.

Those who display no conscience...are they truly bereft of a sense of right and wrong, or have they killed it? That is a big question for me.

at 3am last night as I was trying to fall asleep. I'm glad others ponder the same things

There are a lot of things going on in your mind at the time of birth and sometimes you are reprogrammed. Some people have a strong sense of conscience and retains that through their life, others lose what they have and resort to a "learned" sense of living.
Interesting word though con-science.