ABSTRACT
Conviction, according to Paul D.MacLean, is the feeling that something, for instance a belief, is ultimately important regardless of whether it is true or not. This emotion, like other affects, comes from the limbic system and is therefore rooted in our paleomammalian heritage, even though its components would have to include higher brain functions. Conscience, the human sense of responsibility for life, comes from the relation between certain paleomammalian structures and the neomammalian pre-frontal lobes. A kind of harmony between limbic-based concern for offspring and the most recently evolved structures of the neocortex produces conscience.
