ETHICS (y13) : Conscience

What is conscience?

• The inner conviction of right and wrong

• Has no logic, more like an emotion as it links with feelings of guilt and shame

• It is entirely intuitive

• Some may have an over-developed conscience feeling bad about everything whereas others may have no conscience and feel on remorse

what does “bad conscience” mean?

You feel you did something wrong even if it can be rationally justified

What did conscience mean in the 17th century? How has it changed?

• Used to mean consciousness and our awareness that we think and feel

• After the enlightenment period there was more of a focus on moral responsibility - we had to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong

Who was Freud and what was his view on the conscience?

• Austrian Neurologist

• Said “conscience is an aspect of the super-ego”

• Said our development is determined by childhood events which have been repressed

What are the 3 elements of the mind according to Freud?

1. The Id - unconscious and instinctive part of the persona at the level of its basic emotional and physical needs; this includes eros (instinct for love and sex) and thanatos (drive for violence)

2. The ego - rational self, mediates between desires of the id and what the world lets us have

3. The super-ego - Controlling, restraining self, develops between 3-5 and controls impulses that can damage society eg: eros.

Explain in detail the role of the super-ego

• Important in developing our morality, acts as our INNER-PARENT as in parents’ moral commands stored within us

• Conscience is part of super-ego

• Rules of authority internalised in us so are inescapable, trying to escape them = guilt

How did Freud define conscience then?

• Conscience is where our parents’ commands from our childhood are stored

• An active conscience = a guilty conscience

• It can function at both conscious and unconscious levels

• At unconscious level, manifests itself through guilt

What are the weaknesses of Freud’s view?

• Doesn’t provide an alternative source of morality if it’s just a projection of our parents

• Can’t be seen as the voice of God/ expression of our natural self as it is just the left-overs from our childhood

• Doesn’t give freedom, just makes us conform to rules so his view loses value

Who was Durkheim and what was his view on the conscience?

• French sociologist

• Argued that conscience is social conditioning and God is society

What did Durkheim believe about God?

• He doesn’t exist but is a useful idea

• He is a projection of society’s powers so belief in him gives us a moral obligation to follow society’s commands

• When our demands are projected onto God, they are unconditional

How did Durkheim define the conscience?

• A perception of loyalty to the group (society)

• E.g: guilt about what you’ve eaten is fear of society thinking you too fat/thin

• Someone having no conscience means they are socially maladjusted

What is the “collective conscience”?

• The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average citizens in the same society

• An action is criminal if it conflicts with the common conscience

• It is backed up by evolutionary perspectives where conscience is means for the group to get stronger

• It is a survival mechanism made through people adhering to shared moral values

What are Durkheim’s strengths?

• It combines a social, evolutionary and psychological explanation so is well-explained

What are Durkheim’s weaknesses?

What about great moral teachers eg: Old Testament prophets and Jesus - they stood out from the crowd in order to criticise it

Who was Schleiermacher and what was his view on the conscience?

• German theologian

• Conscience is a source of direct revelation from God and is the “voice of God from within”

• To go against it is sinful not because we go against established moral principles but because it would hinder Christian life

What are the problems with Schleiermacher’s view?

• If our conscience leads to bad things either we’ve ignored God or he picks and chooses who he talks to

• If it’s the voice of God, ethical discussion is redundant

• We can’t be morally free, conscience is determined

• Christians have differing morals, do we hear from the same God?

Who was Aquinas and what was his view on the conscience?

• Theologian

• Said conscience is a God-given faculty of reason

• All humans have a natural inclination towards synderesis rule (do good avoid evil) and this principle should govern all human reasoning

How does reason work according to Aquinas?

• It is within the primary precepts of Natural Moral Law

• Conscience applies this through secondary precepts and becomes fully “activated” by realising that what we’ve done is good or bad

Importantly, what does Aquinas note conscience can be?

• Fallible, it can be mistaken

• We could be ignorant to the rules in which case we’re guilty of sin as we should’ve known

• Or we could be ignorant of the case facts e.g: taking a newspaper we thought was free but it wasn’t then the conscience made a mistake

• In the second case, could argue they’re not responsible so it’s not a sin

Why does Aquinas say our conscience should always be followed?

• When we act based on our conscience even if we are mistaken, what it dictates is true to the individual and truth must be followed

• Truth comes from God so to go against it goes against God

What are the strengths of Aquinas’ approach?

• Realistic, knows conscience can be fallible

• Use of reason is good, allows to make freely chosen moral decisions

What are the weaknesses of Aquinas’ approach?

• Ignores that many act irrationally not just due to desire but because reasoning powers are limited

• Assumes we all know the Synderesis rule but some may not

How did Nietzche rebuke Kant’s idea of “faculties”?

Nietzche said that Kant had invented the idea of faculties to explain things for which he had no answer

What was Fletcher’s view on conscience?

• He argues that conscience is something we do, not something we have

• It doesn’t judge you, it is prospective and chooses what agape love demands in that situation

• It is an active decision there and then

What are the three roles of conscience?

1. To decide what should be done before making

2. To inform the moral agents whether their decisions was right or wrong eg: conscience may show feelings of guilt

3. To demand a particular course of action

What is Aquinas’ view on telling lies and breaking promises?

• It is a betrayal of REASON

• It conflicts with the Synderesis rule

• Violated primary precept of living in an ordered society

What did Aquinas say about exceptional circumstances and lying?

• In those cases we can tell an evasive truth

• eg: in the axe-murdered situation, you can say you saw the victim recently but not where

What would a sociological response to lying and breaking promises be?

• Lying is socially destructive since its stability is dependent on keeping promises

• Eg: a bank not promising to pay the bearer on demand would cause mayhem

What would a psychological/ Freudian response to telling lies and breaking promises be?

• We’d feel guilt if we lie

• This comes from parental commands to not lie or break promises and its influence is so great that we cannot escape these psychological commands

• Some people’s parents didn’t prohibit it which makes lying more common as the super-ego would remain silent

How would Aquinas respond to adultery?

• Conscience and therefore reason says it is wrong

• Said conscience is fallible and can make mistakes

• thus if one is ignorant to the facts of the situation then they’re not in the wrong

• eg: sleeping with a married woman that you thought was a widow

How would Fletcher respond to adultery?

• Conscience tells us to act with agape love

• Uses Mrs Bergmeier example who sleeps with army officer so she could get back to her family

• Conscience is a verb, as she has acted with love her actions are justified

How would Durkheim respond to adultery?

• Argued God is a mechanism through which society’s rules are enforced

• Conscience is the internalised voice of society and God projects this

• Thus adultery is tolerated more today as God’s force has declined

• Marriage is more a social than a religion contract and can be broken at will

• The only moral issue is breaking the contract

How would Freud respond to adultery?

• Humanity invented civilisation to control its instinctive desires

• Laws were made to keep these in check

• This is paradoxical as laws are supposed to keep us happy but they are often the source of unhappiness as they prevent us doing what we want

• Conscience therefore depends on what we want more: civil life or sexual gratification

How valuable is conscience as the “voice of God”?

• Huge value for a theist

• However could not be valuable as we don’t know if voice is from God

• there are conflicting messages from those who all believe they’re hearing from God

• “conscience” here is both subjective and objective

What is the value of conscience as the inner-parent?

• Conscience unites society as we have shared values

• This would apply whether society is good or bad

• If society is evil then we won’t approve of our conscience and it loses value

• We would need external authority sources to make moral decisions

How are feelings of guilt useful?

• Guilt often associated with conscience

• May warn us of bad behaviour and help us modify it so we do the right thing

How are feelings of guilt not useful?

• We may feel guilt unnecessarily

• Eg: If you’re homosexual and you feel guilt, this depends on your view or the influenced view you have on homosexuality

How does determinism challenge the value of conscience?

If we’re determined then our conscience is also so it can’t be a moral guide as all of our actions are determined

Why does the subjectivity of conscience pose an issue?

• Only we know what our conscience tells us

• If we say we’ve followed it this is not valuable to anyone else as justification for actions

• This reason for our decision is irrelevant to whether it was right or wrong - only the consequences will be of interest to others

What is the issue with defining conscience?

• No agreed definition

• Must include: reason, social values, ability to judge, religious values, alternative sources of values and psychology

What could solve the issue of defining conscience?

• Provide one single guiding principle for all:

• “do that which contributes to the flourishing of the whole environment”