Conscience

Question 1

Aquinas theological approach

Question 2

what is ratio?

Answer 2

reason- placed in everyone as a result of being created in image of God

Question 3

what is syneidesis?

Answer 3

inner principle of to do good and avoid evil

Question 4

what is concientia?

Answer 4

a person’s reason making moral judgements

Question 5

what is vincible ignorance?

Answer 5

lack of knowledge for which a person is responsible

Question 6

what is invincible ignorance?

Answer 6

lack of knowledge for which a person is not responsible

Question 7

why is reason so important for Aquinas?

Answer 7

because it is what distinguishes humans from animals

Question 8

when should humans be held to blame for their wrongdoings?

Answer 8

Culpable ignorance- wrong information to blame as we didn’t educate ourselves properly

Question 9

strengths of Aquinas’ argument

Answer 9

Obedience to the individual conscience is even more important than obeying God. This overcomes the problems of those who follow God’s voice as the conscience (the view of St. Augustine and Cardinal Newman who both believed that the conscience is the intuitive voice of God/messenger of God) and do morally bad acts. If God is all loving why would he command such acts through the conscience. Also, God can arbitrarily change his mind at will as he is all powerful and this is a real problem which Leibniz points out. Some scholars such as Rachels also criticise this idea of conscience in that people have no freedom to follow their own conscience and disobey God if they believe they should follow his commands. Aquinas’ stress on ratio overcomes these problems. One is obedient only to one’s own conscience which should be fully informed.
Aquinas recognises that conscience is an intellectual process. It requires the use of ratio and informed knowledge.
Aquinas recognises that humans are finite and make mistakes because they are not perfect like God. He illustrates this with the example of a man who mistakenly sleeps with another man’s wife. This is a pragmatic approach.
Aquinas’ view of conscience means that we cannot blame others for our mistakes. We must develop the good habits (virtues) and use our ratio to help us act well.
It takes into account our telos-that we are created to be good like God and that we all have a common human nature (it is based on empirical evidence established through the use of ratio)

Question 10

Freud’s view of the conscience

Answer 10

For Freud, conscience is not a term used for discerning the moral thing to do but is a term used for guilty feelings caused by the superego. These feelings arise from the interplay between the id, ego and superego.
Freud believed that the human mind was made up of three aspects which work together to produce our behaviour.

Question 11

what is the Id?

Answer 11

the unconscious mind
primitive aspect of the mind which contains our basic desires and needs, wish fulfilment and dreams of gratification.
made up of the Preconscious mind- the memories that we have not readily available but accessible
functions in the irrational and emotional part of the mind
seeks immediate gratification and when our needs are not immediately met, tension can arise- not always possible to satisfy these needs. also known as the Pleasure Principle because left to its own devices we would seek to gratify all of our desires immediately such as eating, sleeping, having sex, taking drugs.

Question 12

what is the ego?

Answer 12

this is conscious
functions with the rational part of the mind and is the part of the mind which makes decisions
grows out of realising that we cannot always have our way
ego must balance the Id and the superego when making decisions
Freud used the analogy of the horse and its rider to explain the relationship between the id and the ego. The rider (the ego) manages and guides the horse (the id)
Delayed gratification is one way in which the ego manages the id-the desires for the pleasures are put off by the ego until a more appropriate time when these can be met.

Question 13

what is the super-ego?

Answer 13

the ego and the superego police the id

This is unconscious and is the last part of the mind to develop
The superego is the internalised standards of right and wrong that children acquire form their family. Parents praise their children when they fulfil rules and this leads to a sense of pride, affirmation and approval. They also punish and rebuke when the children fail to live up to the rules which leads to guilt and shame for bad actions.
The Superego is the internalised voice of authority i.e. our parents, school teachers and society etc.
The superego dominated by society is known as the Cultural superego for Freud.
The more a person is dominated by the superego the more they will not wish to break rules and the more they will want to please external authorities. If they do act on their wishes and desires they will feel guilty and develop neurosis. So this shame and neurosis come from the internalisation of an externally imposed authority from society and parents and not from God although for Freud god/religion is also considered to be an imposed authority.
This whole process occurs unconsciously.

Question 14

what is Freud’s Oedipus complex?

Answer 14

Freud argued that, at the Oedipal stage, usually from three to five years old, the child experiences an erotic attachment to one parent and hostility toward the other parent. They want to push the other parent away. The desire has to be repressed. This leaves the child feeling guilty and angry. This is all subconscious. The child would not be aware of it. However, Freud believed that most mental disorders find their roots in this stage of development. Freud believed that religion was popular because it helped to alleviate the feelings of guilt left over from the Oedipus complex e.g. confession in the Catholic church helps to alleviate guilt. He believed that people behave morally to try to overcome the guilt left over from the Oedipus complex. This is connected to the superego because we feel guilt which is repressed in the same way as Oedipus and all of us feel guilt due to erotic attachment to one parent and pushing away the other.

Question 15

what is an example to use for Freud’s Oedipus complex?

Answer 15

Little Hans- horse, father, glasses etc.

Question 16

what are some similarities between Aquinas and Freud?

Answer 16

· Both identify with the idea that people feel guilt when they do wrong things or for Freud when they perceive that they are doing the wrong thing.
· Both are based on observation: Aquinas would apply reason (or ratio) to the empirical evidence of the world to try and understand God and the mind, while Freud tended to focus more on the psychosexual side of things. He observed Austrio- Hungarian women and analysed their trauma that he thought came from guilt and the Oedipus Complex
· Both identify different factors that make up the conscience. For Aquinas these are the ratio, the use of reason and knowledge and the extent that a person inclines towards the syneidesis or sensuality in order to make a decision /outcome (conscientia) and for Freud the interplay between the ego, Supergego and the id.
· Both see the conscience as something other than the direct voice of God – for Aquinas conscience is made up of right ratio which seeks good and not evil ( syneidesis) and then acts upon this( conscientia) reason is God given but conscience is not a direct religious experience as it is for St Augustine. For Freud conscience does not come directly from God. It comes from the superego- guilt is internalised and repressed when we are told off by authority figures when we break their rules. It’s possible that a person internalises the law of God ( God is seen as an authority figure) and feels guilt when disobeying these laws but this is not claiming in any way that the conscience is the direct voice of God.
· Both try to assess where morality derives from. For example: for Freud we have the Superego. But for Aquinas, when we act immorally and are unaware of it, we call it invincible ignorance. When we act morally it is through the use of ratio, syneidesis and conscientia.
· Another similarity is that both Aquinas and Freud understand the conscience as an individual making moral decisions. For Freud: it is an individual’s unconscious and conscious mind and how they have been informed by their parents. For Aquinas: it is how the individual reasons to make ethical judgements (conscientia)- reason is God given (and informs the conscience) but the conscience is not God’s direct voice.
They both give a place to developmental factors that influence behaviour. For Freud this is the development of the child from 2-5 years old and its development in relationship to its parents with the formation of the Superego and for Aquinas it is the development of the education of the conscience and the practicing of good virtues.

Question 17

what are some differences between Aquinas and Freud?

Answer 17

· For Freud he has a psychological explanation of the conscience but for Aquinas he gives a theological explanation. Morality , is not God-given for Freud but is technically given to us by our parents or society. so when it comes to moral decision making both differ slightly. Obviously Aquinas works with the Syneidesis rule, ratio which is God given and which we must use to work out the natural laws and educate the conscience and conscientia, while Freud uses the ego, superego and Id which have nothing to do with God but are a psychological explanation rather than a theological explanation of the conscience.
· For Aquinas guilt is explained through the idea that humans turn to sensual desires and disregard the education of the conscience and are culpable of vincible ignorance and so feel guilt before God if they have not used right reason - morally culpable and to blame. Guilt arises also from Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobey God and followed the temptation of sensual desire - failure to use right reason and follow Syneidesis and make right moral judgements. Man sleeps with another man’s wife believing it is his wife having educated the conscience fully- in this case he is not to blame and should not feel guilt. If he does then it is misplaced guilt. For Freud he explains guilt as the internalised standards taught to us by parents and culture and this forms the superego – we feel guilt when we disobey our parents etc and in turn want to make up for this by pleasing them. We behave appropriately to please the external authorities. This guilt can lead to neurotic symptoms- obsessional thoughts, actions which Freud claimed he analysed in the Austrio Hungarian woman and see also example of Paul Gascoigne. (explained through the Oedipus Complex and Darwinian Primal Horde theory- the son has an erotic attachment to the mother and kills the father. He internalises guilt and worships the totem to appease his sins and guilt - this is true of all people- they form erotic attachment to parent of opposite sex etc even today and then feel guilt for this (evidence- study which shows revulsion having seen mother in bed with father and when partner has an affair shows erotic attachment and revulsion- ) and this leads to guilt. In turn the only way to form a healthy guilt free conscience is to consciously use reason through the ego ( reality principle) to mediate between the id and the superego. In the case of the garden of Eden Freud would interpret this as the id seeking gratification of desire through eating the forbidden fruit and then the superego at work as it creates guilty feelings having done something prohibited by the authority figure.
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· For Aquinas reason in the conscious mind plays an important part in the process of the conscience - we must educate ourselves using right reason ( ratio) and try as best as possible to aim towards the Syneidesis using reason as conscientia is reason making moral judgements. However, for Freud reason is not part of the formation of the superego. Young children internalise the anger of their parents when they do wrong in their eyes and feel guilt- none of this is rational. It all happens in the unconscious parts of the mind of which we are not aware. For Freud reason is the rational part of the ego- which mediates between the id and the ego to form a healthier conscience.
· For Aquinas, the conscience points to absolute morality through the use of right reason , whereas for Freud, the superego’s demands vary from one person to another based on upbringing and culture. He even speaks of the cultural superego.
· Aquinas-the process of moral decision making. Conscientia-reason making right decisions, which is to achieve an absolute good and avoid evil, the Syneidesis rule, so our conscience does prescribe most moral action and we have to educate it correctly so that it should conform to the natural laws. We must use reason to observe and make conclusions about the natural laws ( common human purpose/telos designed by God ) based on what we observe of our common human nature designed by God. In this way Aquinas was interested in the process of moral decision making. There is a right way to behave and we must reason the right laws. Aquinas was interested in defining Good (he was a naturalist- link to meta ethics) and he wanted to claim we could know the ultimate and absolute Good through the conscience. Freud - conscience does not describe the most moral thing to do or how to arrive at any sense of what is Good or Wrong but instead refers to morality created through the superego (internalised voice of authority - the inner voice rather than the God-given use of reason). (No absolute good). Freud was not interested in defining the term Good at all.
· Aquinas-have to educate the conscience using God given reason with theology/the Bible and Natural Moral Law to develop the good and seek the good and avoid evil to avoid culpable ignorance. For Freud, the conscience originates from the selfish wish to avoid punishment from the parents/make the parents proud, whereas for Aquinas the conscience comes from a selfless God. It is not about seeking a selfless Good for Freud.
· Attachment- Freud thought conscience was connected to attachment- attachment to parent of opposite sex- feel revulsion and guilt - this is internalised in the unconscious mind- psychologists today have developed this work on child attachment such as Bowlby. For Aquinas conscience has absolutely nothing to do with attachment – in fact the opposite- one must not be attached to things of this world- we must seek the ultimate Good through the conscience)