conscience notes

what is conscience

• a sense of justice, what is right or wrong

• ‘a persons moral sense of right or wrong viewed as acting a guide to ones behaviour’

augustine

• conscience was literally the voice of God informing us what is right and wrong

• goodness comes from God and God knows our actons and the choices

• hidings ones actions and being unwilling to confess them to God

aquinas’ view

• not the voice of God but rather a combination of the natural human desire to do what is right 

• synderies + ratio = conscientia 

• synderies → do good and aviod evil and instinctive moral desire given by God 

• ratio → reason and our thinking 

• practica ratio involves understanding and judgement 

• so conscience is the interllectual process of combing our desire to do right with our practical reason in order to reach a descision. this is given through experience 

• he does however recognise how it is possible to make mistakes when we deserve to do the right thing 

invincible ingorance

• when we make mistakes when our intention was good but we were wrongly informed

• not our fault because we didnt know any better

• e.g solider causing the death of a refugee child when he thought he had put her in a safe place

• if a man suffering from a mental illness cause harm - he is incapable of sound judgement

vincibly ignorant

• not properly informed because of failure to use common sense or fail to aquiant ourselves with the facts

• e.g solider didnt look at the map

freuds pyschology

• the phyche consits of 3 things, 

• id -`. primalistic 

• ego - rationalised self

• super ego - internalsation of external authouirty 

• oedipus complex → a sons love ( can be sexual) towards their mother leads to resentment between sons and fathers over their loves for their mother 

conscience 

• superego is an internalised subconscious of external authouirty 

• the superego punishes the ego with feelings of guilt 

• consceince thus is the feeling of guilt because of the superego domination 

freud and religion

• was an athesit but recognised the link between God and guilt 

• primative cultures, we were afriad of natural events, these are caused by gods living in the sky and we can appease them by giving gifts

• monotheism → God is like our fathers they dominate us and cause us to feel guilt 

• this guilt is passed onto our own children 

fletcher

• conscience is a verb we do it instead of being something that we have

• we shouldnt reflect on past actions ‘there is no conscience meerely a word for our attempts to make descisions’ 

• so we shouldn’t feel guilt instead relfect on the result in future actions, we have shown agape and done the best that we can, so if we dont achieve this then we shouldn’t feel guilt 

• completely practical consceince is actively contemplating how one can achieve the most agapeic outcome 

fletcher critiscms

• does not expian what are reflection on past actions are thet not conscience when we feel guilty if this is not our conscience speaking then what is it

butler

• consciecne is authouirty since it comes from God and should be obeyed

• it determines what is right or wrong, it asserts itself without needed any other thoughts

• conscience can be mistaken as you can blind yourself by thinking it is wrong when one is right 

• it is intuition

newman

• conscience is God given and it is the following divine law

• ‘ i toast the pope but conscience first’

• conscience is a messanger of God and when we do wrong we feel guilty and guilt towards them

• illative sense

piaget 

• development

• a childs moralitly develops through stages, heternomous - rules are inflexible - autonomous - less dependent on others for moral authoirty

fromm

• authortiatrian - authorties apply rules and punishments which are internalised

• humanistic - not influence by authoirty, may mean disobdience to the state

AO2 for aquinas theory

• aquinas is too optomistic about human nature in the historical ills of humanitiy - if we have orientation to the good why do we do evil 

• orientation towards the good doesnt mean constant goodness there are many reasons as to why we may sin 

• descriptive moral relativism - different cultures and moral beliefs, fletcher makes this argument as if we have innate abilities then we would have moral agreements 

• core similarities between the moralties of different cultures

• barth agaisnt the use of natural theology - tillich support aquinassince he is arguning about the understanding of natural laws this is conscience

AO2 freud 

• crticsed for not being emprical enough, karl popper aegues that what freud claims is ‘unfaslifable’ there is no way to prove it wring so it cannot be empriscsm 

churchland

• conscience is a neurobiological construct rooted in brain circulatry rather than a divine or innate moral code

• social impluses empathy and moral norms are learned through brain reward system that produce positive feelings for social complience and guilt for deviations