Conscience

• Conscience

  moral compass
• Aquinas

  • Theological approach
  • influenced by St. Paul & Augustine
  • ratio, describes reason
  • conscientia, reason makes moral judgments
  • conscience helps us to become better people
• Aquinas

  • conscience is the process of reason
  • our ability to reason is given to us by God as a result of imago dei
  • virtue of prudence, the ability to make judgments based on the circumstances we find ourselves in
• Aquinas

  • innate
  • unconscious habit
  • God - given but not his direct voice
• Aquinas - reason

  • proper moral thinking is a rational process
  • innate, inbuilt capacity as a moral reasoner recognises that certain basic moral principles are true/false
• Aquinas - Synderesis

  • the foundation, but conscience is the next step
  • ‘to do good and avoid evil’
• Aquinas— Conscientia

  • Butler sees conscience as a moral sense which allows us to see morality
  • it is always wrong to go against our conscience or conscientious conclusions
• Aquinas - Ignorance

  • vincible - pure ignorance, a lack of knowledge for which a person is responsible and can be blamed, no excuse
  • invincible - accidental ignorance, a lack of knowledge which someone is not responsible and can’t be blamed
• Freud - 3 parts

  1. Id, seeks pleasure
  2. ego, mediator
  3. super-ego, internalised moral standards
• Aquinas - pros/cons

  pros

  • simple
  • rational to prioritise good
  • reason used

  cons

  • illogical to apply reason always
  • outdated views
  • lacks modern psychology
• Freud - pros/cons


  pros

  • umbrella term, inclusive
  • scientific
  • focuses on guilt

  cons

  • complex, 3 parts
  • ideas cannot be falsified
  • not enough evidence from case studies
• Freud - Horse&Rider Analogy 


  the ego (rider) guides the id (horse).
• Freud


  conscience is the influence of parents
• Guilt 


  the result of shame

  Aquinas, gnawing feeling.

  Freud, conflict between 3 parts.
• Fletcher

  • a verb rather than a noun
  • it is something you do when you make decisions
  • situational and relative
  • a way of describing how we respond to an ethical issue
• Fromm (psychological view)


  a fear of displeasing authority, leading to guilt.
• Fromm’s conscience types

  the authoritarian conscience -

  conscience begins with a fear of authority.

  the humanistic conscience -

  our own inner voice reacting to how well we are functioning in life, a reaction to ourselves to our own behaviour.
• ratio

  innate reason
• synderesis rule

  “to do good and avoid evil”
• ld

  the part of the mind that seeks pleasure
• Super-ego

  the part of the mind that contradicts the id, it uses internalised ideals from parents to make the ego behave morally
• Ego

  the mediation between the id and the super-ego
• Conscientia

  a person’s reason makes moral judgements
• Vincible ignorance

  a lack of knowledge a person is responsible for, thus they can be blamed
• Invincible ignorance

  a lack of knowledge a person is not responsible for, thus they cannot be blamed
• Aquinas - is conscience from god ? YES

  • god and religion bring human wholeness
  • helps us to become better people
  • innate
  • allows us to use reason
  • imago dei
  • theological approach
• Freud - is conscience from god ? NO

  • god is human invention, to give us comfort when facing our dangerous world
  • no proof of God’s existence
  • religion based on God caused neuroses and prevents us from becoming psychologically whole
  • psychological approach
• Aquinas

  • theological approach
  • the voice of god
  • use reason to make decisions
  • synderesis rule
  • vincible/invincible ignorance
  • ratio is innate due to imago dei
  • linked to reason
  • not products of the unconscious mind
• Freud

  • psychological approach
  • the voice of parents
  • 3 parts of the mind
  • Horse and Rider analogy
  • not linked to reason
  • product of the unconscious mind
  • a phenomenon, it doesn’t actually exist
  • an umbrella term for factors such as culture, environment, genetics, and education
• J.H. Newman

  voice of God
• Fletcher

  a verb
• Aquinas and Aristotle

  reason
• Aquinas on guilt

  guilt would nearly be a by product of acting avid t the way your conscience directs you
• Freud on guilt

  conscience is guilt but not objective guilt, it is a psychological phenomenon that we might overcome as our guilt is not necessarily logical