2.5A- Conscience Flashcards
Biblical passages that relate to conscience
-Romans 7:19, Paul struggles with the way his actions conflict with his inner sense of right and wrong.
-Genesis 1:27, some see the conscience as an aspect of humanity made in the image of God, created with the ability to discern right from wrong.
Aquinas’ theological approach to the conscience
-Aquinas did not think that the conscience was an independent special faculty or power capable of telling people what is right and wrong. He thought that the conscience is an aspect of human reason.
-a person’s reason making moral
judgements was called ‘conscientia’.
-Aquinas thought reason is what seperates us from other animals. He called the reason ‘ratio’.
-Aquinas believed reason is a gift from God, placed in every person because everyone is made in God’s image and likeness.
-‘Ratio’ enables us to work things our and make judgements about them. Aquinas made use of his understanding of reason in his ethical teaching about natural law, as well as his teaching about the conscience.
-Aquinas thought that within each person there is a principle called ‘synderesis’ which encourages us to do goof and avoid evil. He thought that we can cultivate ‘synderesis’ in ourselves through effort, so that it becomes a habit. If we try to do good then our reason will help us.
-Aquinas thought that our consciences are binding because it is wrong to go against reason. He thought we should do what we think is right and that we also have a duty to make sure our reason is well-informed when we make moral decisions. He did not argue that conscience should be followed simply as a ‘gut feeling’.
-People cannot be blamed if they follow their consciences when they make moral judgements based on the best of their knowledge, but they can sometimes do the wrong thing through ignorance.
-Ignorance can be divided into two kinds: vincible and invincible.
-Vincible ignorance- is a lack of knowledge whcih the person could have done something about. If people do the wrong thing through ignorance when they could have informed themselves better, then they are blameworthy.
-Invincible ignorance- is the opposite of vincible ignorance. Sometimes people act in good faith and follow their consciences but they get things wrong because of ignorance of facts they could not have been expected to know anything about. They cannot be balmed for this.
-Cardinal John Henry Newman famously said “to Conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards”, showing his belief that conscience should take priority even over the teachings of the Catholic Church. Responsibility for moral actions fall on the individual.
Possible criticsms of Aquinas’ ideas about conscience
-It could be argued that Aquinas does not take into account the extent to which our moral reasoning is influenced by out upbringing and our society. What seems to be conscience could be the values of society we have learned.
-Some disagree that the conscience is the human mind making moral decisions, and think that instead it comes more directly from God (Augustine, Joseph Butler, and Cardinal Newman were more inclined to think this way).
Freud’s psychological approach to conscience
-Freud believed that the conscience is not rational decision-making but comes from an inner unconscious part of our minds that has been shaped by our upbringing.
-He thought that our minds have several layers, like layers of rock. We know what we are thinking about on the surface, but there are all kinds of deeper ideas, memories, and habits that we are not always fully aware of, but that still influence the ways in which we think and behave.
-Freud thought that the way the mind works is closely linked to sexuality. He thought there are five stages of psychosexual development.
-Freud identified three aspects of the human personality: the id, the ego, and the super-ego.
-the ego manages and guides the id. The ego learns from parents and from society about behaviour that is considered appropriate in different social settings. The ego manages the id’s feelings of frustration when immediate gratification is not possible. The ego acts in some ways as the conscience becuase it remembers which actions are appropriate and inappropriate.
-The id is a powerful part of our personalities within us from birth. It leads us to seek pleasure and it wants immediate gratification.
-The super-ego is where the mind ‘stores’ moral teaching and social rules recieved during upbringing.Religious and moral feelings as well as conscience are in Freud’s view related to the super-ego.
-The three main aspects of the mind are not totally seperate but interrelate in dynamic ways.
-For Freud, the conscience arises from the interplay between the id, the ego and the super-ego. Our feelings about differen actions arise because of the ways our minds have developed.
-Later thinkers such as Erich Fromm developed Freud’s ideas. Fromm wrote of the immature and the mature conscience. The immature conscience is based on an unthinking response to feelings of guilt, whereas the mature conscience involves rational thinking and decision-making.
Possible criticisms of Freud’s account of the conscience
-Freud does not consider the possibility of there being any relation between the conscience and God; he dismisses the idea of God without discussion.
-Many thinkers believe that Freud puts too great emphasis on human sexuality as underpinning every aspect of psychology, rather than looking at a wider range of possible influences on the human mind.
Comparing the ideas of Aquinas and Freud on the conscience: Similarities
-Both Aquinas and Freud understand the conscience as an individual making moral decisions.
-Both think the conscience can be sometimes in opposition to whatever the majority popular view held by society might be.
-Both think that conscience can be shaped or educated.
-Both see the conscience as something other than the direct voice of God.
-Both agree that guilt can be disruptive for humanity. Both see a link between guilt and human desires for sensual pleasure.
-Parallels can be drawn between Aquinas’ understanding of the effective operation of reason in the cultivation of synderesis in a person of good character, and Freud’s understanding of the mentally healthy state of a balance between the id, super-ego and ego. Both saw the importance of balance.
Comparing the ideas of Aquinas and Freud on the conscience: Aquinas’ differences
Aquinas
-sees the conscinece as the activity of a God-given reason.
-sees wrongdoing in terms of sin, and right and wrong in terms of the will of God.
-understands guilt in terms of feelings of being to blame for moral wrongdoing.
-understands the conscience as the workings of the human reason when making moral decisions.
-sees the conscience as morally binding
-was writing in the 13th Century when people understood many puzzling aspects of the world in terms of theology.
Comparing the ideas of Aquinas and Freud on the conscience: Freud’s differences
Freud
-doesn’t include the idea of God at all in his account of the conscience.
-doesn’t have an idea of right and wrong s absolute values, and sees them in terms of the norms of society.
-sees guilt in terms of internal conflict between different parts of the personality.
-understands the conscience to work on a more subconscious level.
-the conscience doesn’t relate to any kind of absolute right anf wrong but reflects the operation of the id, super-ego and ego in his account.
-was writing in the 20th Century when there had been significant advances in medicine and some development of the social sciences.
