aquinas

• Aquinas believes in conscience as the God-given faculty of reason

  • all humans have a natural inclination to do good, in accordance with his synderesis
• Aquinas says conscience is fallible

  • it may be mistaken as a result of not understanding all the information in a situation - this is not blameworthy
• conscience may be mistaken through ignorance

  • vincible ignorance = not seeking out all Church guidance on an issue, thus making a decision through this is blameworthy
  • invincible ignorance = individuals have made every effort to inform their conscience, but there may be some ambiguity in Church teaching - this is not blameworthy
• Aquinas taught that once conscience has made a judgement, it must always be obeyed
• challenge to Aquinas' view: many people's reasoning powers are much more limited than he assumes + his faith people obeying in the synderesis rule is over-optimistic