Or is it a mental construct which enables a person to function in a societal interactions?
oops, it should read:
Or is it a mental construct which enables a person to function more easily during societal interactions?
Considering the fact that different societies have very different morals, I’d say that, the ravings C.S. Lewis and his ilk to the contrary, no specific conscience inborn. However, I think that the idea of a conscience is inborn. That is, most normal people have consciences, and the property of having a conscience is inborn. However, the particular conscience that one has is not inborn.
I’d say a “learned” or “taught” behavior. You must first learn the lay of the land before you can adjust your mental map to the circumstances.
As to the role of a self-moderating conscience, I would certainly think that it performs a vital function for any conscious being.
Nope. H. Sapiens has no more moral instinct than a speed bump. After a while, it generally acquires a set of conditioning paradigms and programmed responses, but it takes a while.
A human child is as much a savage as that of any other species. The differences come about when the proto-human is subjected to training in acceptable behaviour. Some of this trainig takes the form of instilling a “conscience” but it isn’t there at the outset.
Some interesting thoughts on the subject can be found here and here.
If you don’t want to see the cites, the gist of it is that the human without a conscience has to expend additional effort to conceal that lack from other humans while dealing with them. It is just easier to behave honestly, and so people tend to gravitate toward honest behavior. I’ve simplified it quite a bit, you should go and read them.