Conscience

• ratio 


  word used by Aquinas to describe reason - something which is placed in every person as a result of being created in the image of God
• Synderesis 


  Aquinas - means to follow the good and avoid the evil, the rule that all precepts follow
• Id


  Freud = part of the mind that has instinctive impulses that seek satisfaction in pleasure
• Super-ego


  Freud = uses the word to describe the part of the mind that contradicts the Id and uses internalised ideals from parents and society to make the ego behave morally
• ego


  Freud = uses this word to describe the mediation between the id and the super ego
• Conscientia 


  name Aquinas gives to the process whereby a person's reason makes moral judgement
• Vincible Ignorance


  how Aquinas describes a lack of knowledge for which a person is responsible and can be blames
• Invincible ignorance 


  how Aquinas describes for which a person is not responsible and therefore cannot be blamed
• The more you obey your conscience the more your conscience will demand of you 


  C.S. Lewis
• I have noticed my conscience for many years and I know it is more trouble and bother to me than anything else I started with 


  Mark Twain
• The torture of a bod conscience is the hell of a living soul

  John Calvin
• But I think that if we shut out all the noise and clutter from our lives and listen to that voice, it will tell us the right thing to do

  Christopher Reeve
• 'The Spark of conscience was the power to distinguish good from evil"


  St. Jerome (347-420)
• Jean Piaget


  Conscience is significantly reinforced by the upbringing and influences we have in our early years
• Aquinas and Ratio:

  • ratio = human reasoning -- humans have special qualities
  • AUGUSTINE - believed that reason, thought, intellect + mind were altogether whereas AQUINAS believes that it was separate
  • conscience was the same as right reason (ratio)
  • not an inner voice (like Augustine believed) but a form of knowledge that leads to moral facts like scientific knowledge leads to scientific facts
  • progressive though of acting things out
  • inspired by Roman 1:20
  • connects to the eternal realm
  • innate sense of right and wrong
• For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

  Romans 1:20 - Aquina
• Syndersis and Aquinas:

  • directs us towards good and thus away from evil
  • sensuality within us tempts us
  • conflict between both - positive outcome
  • syndersis is a habitat
  • directed for us to do good and avoid evil
  • natural law is what people know to do right (natural law) - romans 2
• To Aquinas, how many parts could be divided into?


  2
• What are the names that Aquinas gave to the different parts of the conscience?

  Synderesis and Conscientia
• How man kinds of Ignorance did Aquinas believe in?

  2 - vincible and in~vincinle
• Example of vincible and invincible ignorance to Aquinas:

  • vincible ignorance - sleeping with another persons wife
  • invincible ignorance - accidentally sleeping with another persons wife
• I toast the Pope but I toast my conscience more

  Newman
• Cardinal Newman:

  • argues everyone knows the difference between right and wrong
  • conscience is a divine law placed inside each one of us by God
  • it is a messenger from God rather than the voice of God
  • like a truth detector
• Joseph Butler:

  • like Aquinas, ability to reason is from God and the evidence is our conscience
  • believed human nature to have a hierarchy - bottom is basic desires and the top is the conscience
  • humans motivated by two basic principles : self love and benevolence
  • conscience helps us care for others not ourselves
  • deception of conscience worse than resultant action
• Freud's structure of the mind:

  • the EGO - conscious self -- the obvious everyday personality
  • the ID - unconscious self -- repressed desires and memories
  • the SUPER EGO - standard of morality of society forced onto a person from outside
• Conscience for Freud:

  • a product of psychological factors that influence us in ways that may or may not be healthy
  • conscience seeks to deal with the conflict of all imposed moral ideas
  • driven by the super ego
  • ego mediated between the super ego and the id
  • feel guilty when our ego gives way to the unconscious demands of the id
• Freud: Sex Explains everything

  • said boys had a deep desire to replace their fathers so they could have exclusive possession of their mother -- Oedipus Complex
  • libido is the most basic of all our urges
  • women get frustrated due to penis envy
  • conscience psychologically created to stop us from carrying out our basic desires which are seen as socially unacceptable
  • disobey conscience - feel guilty
• To Freud, what does Libido mean

  sexual desire and there a 5 stages
• What are the 5 stages of libido?

  1. Oral (0-1) - sucking and swallowing
  2. Anal (1-3) - withholding and expelling
  3. Phallic (3-6) - masturbation
  4. Latency (6 - puberty) - absence of sexual motivation
  5. Genital puberty to adulthood - concerned with sexual intercourse
• Sexual desires cause conflict and guilt:

  • freud - sex explains everything
  • sexual desires are what drives people
  • society demands we control sexual desires for the greater good
  • but this results in repressed sexual desires
  • sexual morality - traditionally come from religion Freud believed that this guild comes through the super ego
  • God gives people an explanation for the guilt they feel
  • religion provides a father figure to admit to - wish fulfillment
  • illusion - helped society from going to anarchy
• The Oedipus Complex:

  • based on the Greek Tragedy by Sophocles
  • battle of supremacy
  • leaving his home in Corinth, Oedipus believed that he escaped a prophecy of killing his dad and marrying his mother - this was not true as the people in Corinth weren't his parent
  • prophecy occurs - when he finds out he stabs his own eyes out
  • boys see their fathers as rivals for their mothers love
• Aquinas Theological view on conscience:

  • morality is from the divine law
  • our reason (ratio) controls our synderesis (natural inclination to do good and avoid evil) which leads to good habits -- leading to conscientia (moral decisions)
  • if we don't apply correct ratio and make bad decisions guild follows as we go against the divine law
• Freud's psychological views on the conscience:

  • morality is the result of interaction between ID, ego and super-ego
  • dominant ID leads to uncontrollable behaviour and guild from following desires
  • dominant super ego leads to unreasonable demands from the external sources when we deal this leads to guilt
  • critics say too much emphasis on psychosexual analysis
• Aquinas on guilt:

  • guilt tells us an action is not good
  • not in accordance with divine law
  • price of sin
  • guilt follows faulty reasoning (ratio) applied to the synderesis
  • invincible ignorance - should not lead to guilt
  • misplaced guilt can disrupt relationship with God
  • guilt is not a punishment
  • God's grace expels all guilt
• Graph for Freud

  A) Reality

  B) ID

  C) Super ego

  D) Internalised morality

  E) super ego

  F) ego

  G) please

  H) guilt

  I) Pleasure

  J) dominant

  K) uncontrollable

  
• Freud on Guilt:

  • guilt is the result on inner conflict
  • linked to our libido and giving into ID
  • between our desires and what we 'should' do
  • causes tension and turmoil and the competing demands leads to guilt
  • turmoil causes wrong doing, we feel guilty about our desires
  • leads to future wrong doing, our behaviour reflects our guilt
  • our struggle with the demands of the conscience causes us to snap
  • what can't be expressed with outward turns into inward neuorsis
• Garden of Eden: guilt, shame and desire

  • Freud - sex is about gratifying sexual desire, desire to gratify the ID was followed by guilt having gone against the father figure. The story is not about ethics but a son (Adam) rebelling against his father (God) and that is an end in its self
  • He believed that faith controlled sexual behaviour -- grew up in the victorian period
• Garden of Eden: guilt, shame and desire

  • Aquinas - giving into sensual knowledge and eating the fruit, bigger part of the salvation story, they felt guilt after
• Jung: alternative psychological view

  • religion is a natural process that stems from archetypes within the unconscious mind
  • it performs the function of harmonising the psyche - beneficial phenomenon
  • removal of religion would lead to psychological problems
• "It seems that the verdict must be 'not proven' ... the Freudian theory of religion may be true but it has not been shown to be so"

  Hick's conclusion on Freud