Conscience, a Question beyond the Moral Issues: Ahmad Mokhtar’s Question of Conscience and a Major Historical Witness

The concept of conscience has had a special place in the development of the history of Western cultures. This position can be considered both in the general culture of these societies and in terms of the effects, it has had on the concept of modern ‘natural law’. The importance of this concept can be seen in the philosophies of ancient Greece to the centrality that is given to it in contemporary intellectual discourse. Conscience is a major topic in Western philosophy, but it also has an important place in literature; it has been considered a key concept in modern law. In this tradition, the conscience has been a moment of individual development, a moment of disobedience to norm, and a moment of creativity and imagination. In the modern Kurdish culture, this and similar concepts are weakened their traditional cultural and social status. However, this forgetfulness is also seen in the world of Kurdish intellectuals. Ahmad Mukhtar Jaf’s novelette, The Question of Conscience, by taking into consideration the standards of «the history of ideas», is one of those precious opportunities that can be considered from several perspectives. The years of writing this book are valuable testimony to the intellectual and cultural changes that the Kurdish community has undergone. However, this story expresses a different perspective on how conscience must be understood. Ahmad Mokhtar attempts to demonstrate how conscience needs a suitable social context for growth, and how in the absence of such a context, conscience may be forgotten.