How do you interpret the two?
To consider consciousness by itself is entirely undemanding. There is nothing to describe. An attempt to account for it in context, however, forces the construction of ever shifting, elaborate adventures of thought.
When you look at the two they are confusingly similar. And could easily be mistaken for one another.
CONSCIOUS
1. Having an awareness of one's environment and one's own existence, sensations, and thoughts. See Synonyms at aware.
2. Mentally perceptive or alert; awake: The patient remained fully conscious after the local anesthetic was administered.
2. Capable of thought, will, or perception: the development of conscious life on the planet.
3. Subjectively known or felt: conscious remorse.
4. Intentionally conceived or done; deliberate: a conscious insult; made a conscious effort to speak more clearly.
5. Inwardly attentive or sensible; mindful: was increasingly conscious of being watched.
6. Especially aware of or preoccupied with. Often used in combination: a cost-conscious approach to further development; a health-conscious diet.
In psychoanalysis, the component of waking awareness perceptible by a person at any given instant; consciousness
CONSCIENCE
1. The awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one's conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong: Let your conscience be your guide.
2. A source of moral or ethical judgment or pronouncement: a document that serves as the nation's conscience.
3. Conformity to one's own sense of right conduct: a person of unflagging conscience.
2. The part of the superego in psychoanalysis that judges the ethical nature of one's actions and thoughts and then transmits such determinations to the ego for consideration.
3. Obsolete. Consciousness.
