fromm

• what is the authoritarian conscience?

  the internalised voice of a disapproving society which we are afraid to disobey
• what is the humanistic conscience?

  the aspect of the conscience that allows us to flourish
• what is fromm's understanding of the conscience?

  conscience develops in a social context as both "authoritarian" and "humanistic"
• what is the context of fromm's views/understanding about the conscience?

  his ideas were developed in the context of the holocaust/ww2, fromm was looking at what happened and was thinking about why so many people were complicit
• according to fromm, guilt, shame, conscience and moral responsibility arise out of what?

  fear of being rejected from society, because society is based on an obedience to rules/conformity to norms
• fromm pointed out that in most social systems...?

  the supreme virtue is obedience and the supreme sin is disobedience
• for most people, what is guilt?

  the result of feeling disobedient - they are troubled because they have disobeyed a command
• what is this guilt known as?

  having an authoritarian conscience (this is externally imposed - people don't think for themselves, but are driven by a fear of disobeying others)
• in other words...?

  our conscience arises out of fear of being shunned and excluded from society because we've been disobedient
• what does the conscience become?

  the internalised voice of society, which disapproves of our actions
• fromm also distinguishes between an authoritarian conscience AND a...?

  more positive humanistic conscience
• what is this humanistic conscience driven by?

  individual standards, and not by fear of external authority
• what does fromm say, to describe the humanistic conscience?

  "we have an intuitive knowledge of what is human and inhuman, what is conducive of life and what is destructive of life"
• what does fromm see the conscience as?

  this dualistic struggle between the authoritarian conscience and the humanistic conscience
• to reject the authoritarian form and embrace the humanistic form is to do what?

  free ourselves from the fear of unjust and violent authority and to realise instead our full potential as people
• (s) fromm's understanding is consistent with Freud's understanding of conscience as a source of guilt, HOWEVER...?

  fromm's approach is more optimistic than freud's - the humanistic conscience isn't just the internalised voices of authority figures
• (s) what does fromm's understanding take into account?

  the social influences on human beings
• what view of the conscience is fromm?

  sociological