conscience

Question 1

conscience

Answer 1

is generally seen as moral faculty, sense or feeling which compels individuals to believe that particular activities are morally right or wrong.

Question 2

Christopher Reeve

Answer 2

“If we shut out all the noise and clutter from our lives and listen to that voice, it will tell us the right thing to do”

Question 3

Adam Smith

Answer 3

‘impartial spectator’
It arises out of the actual process of moral judgment around us, and we need it as part of our drive to find a harmony of feelings with our actual neighbors.

Question 4

St Paul to Romans

Answer 4

‘what the law requires is written on their hearts’

Question 5

Saint Jerome

Answer 5

‘scintilla conscientia’ spark of conscience

Question 6

Augustine

Answer 6

saw conscience as the voice of God speaking to us from within

Question 7

Aquinas (Ratio)

Answer 7

• to understand conscience you must understand ratio
• distinguishes humans from other animals
• divine gift of God
• progressive in a direction towards judgement
• morality is not following cultural opinions

Question 8

Pope Benedict XVI

Answer 8

“justice is trampled underfoot by weakness, cowardice and fear of the diktat of the ruling mindset”

means that ratio reaches beyond what is socially acceptable to a higher morality.

Question 9

Aquinas (Synderthesis)

Answer 9

• directs us toward good and away from evil
• sensuality in us that leads us towards evil
• humans use ratio to cultivate the habits

Question 10

Aquinas (Conscientia)

Answer 10

• an act within a person applied when the knowledge gained from the application of ratio to synderthesis is applied to something we do
• conscience is reason making right decisions

Question 11

Aquinas (Ignorance)

Answer 11

• Going against reason is always wrong ‘everything that does not come from faith is sin’.
• Vincible ignorance:lack of knowledge for which a person can be held responsible as they could of gained the knowledge
• Invincible ignorance:lack of knowledge for which a person is not responsible as they acted to the best of their knowledge.

Question 12

John Henry Newman

Answer 12

“I shall drink to the Pope, if you please- still to conscience first and the Pope afterwards”

Question 13

Joseph Butler

Answer 13

• conscience is the part of the process that humans have in which they are aware of their own situations
• defined conscious as a faculty of reflection

Question 14

Fletcher

Answer 14

-conscience is a verb- “merely a word for our attempts to make decisions creatively, constructively, fittingly”

Question 15

Freud (id)

Answer 15

basic impulses; seeking immediate gratification; irrational and impulsive. Operates at unconscious level/

Question 16

Freud (Super-ego)

Answer 16

-ideals and morals;striving for perfection; incorporated from parents: becoming a person’s conscience. Operates mostly a pre-conscious level.

Question 17

Freud (Ego)

Answer 17

-executive mediating between id impulses and superego inhibitions; testing reality; rational. Operates mainly at conscious level but also at pre conscious level.

Question 18

Piaget

Answer 18

• prior to age 11 we have heteronymous morality where right conduct is enforced by expectation of punishment or reward.
• As our ability to think abstractly develops, we develop a more ‘autonomous’ morality which draws on social norms and an appreciation of consequences, but it is autonomous because we now have the cognitive ability to think through the consequences ourselves.