Conscience Flashcards
Explain ratio
The word Aquinas uses to describe reason, something which is placed into every person as a result of their being created in the image of God
Explain Synderesis
This is the key principle, for Aquinas, to follow good and avoid evil (a rule that all precepts follow)
This is the process of the conscience
What is the Id ?
For Freud, this is the part of the mind that has impulses that seek satisfaction and pleasure
What is the super-ego ?
Freud uses this word to describe the part of the mind that contradicts the id
What is the ego?
Freud uses this word to describe the mediator between the id and the super-ego
Explain conscientia
This is the conscience in action
- ratio is used to inform synderesis and this results in the conscientia
Explain vincible ignorance
This is how Aquinas describes the lack of knowledge for which a person is responsible, and can be blamed
Explain invincible ignorance
This is how Aquinas describes the lack of knowledge for which a person is not responsible, and cannot be blamed
Explain Aquinas’ Ratio
Ratio = reason
- Aquinas did not believe that the conscience was apart of the mind that told us right from wrong
- God gave us reason (ratio)
- ratio (reason) to Aquinas is more than simple comprehension or understanding, instead it is the act of using that reason to work things out or make a judgement
Ratio helps us move from earthly truths to eternal truths
Explain Aquinas’ synderesis
To do good and follow evil [links to natural law]
- he believed that this principle resided in all human and this is what distinguished them from animals
- but he was aware that both Synderesis and sensuality (temptation) was present in humans
- but was positive that humans can use their ratio to make good moral judgments
Explain Aquinas’ conscientia
For Aquinas the conscientia (conscience) is what applies our knowledge, makes the judgement and moves us to act
For Aquinas the conscience is an act that follows knowledge gained via ratio
“It is clear that the conscience is an act” T. Aquinas
Aquinas quote about conscientia
Conscience is ‘reason making right decisions’ [Thomas Aquinas, ‘summa theologica’ 1265-74 part 1-2]
Explain Aquinas’ ignorance
For Aquinas their are two kinds of ignorance, as he understands that a person can honestly do he wrong thing
Vincible ignorance
- is a lack of knowledge where the person CAN be held responsible (as they ought to have known better)
- someone who demonstrates vincible ignorance, cannot claim that ‘conscience’ justifies their action
Invincible ignorance
- is a lack of knowledge where the person CANNOT be held responsible
- this is when a person acts best to the knowledge they have been given, but nevertheless the wrong act doesn’t make it right
- Aquinas doesn’t believe these people are condemned
What example does Aquinas use to explain ignorance ?
- Aquinas says a situation where mistaken reason leads a man to sleep with another mans wife. That act is evil based on ignorance of divine law
- But if it’s clarified that the misjudgment comes from him thinking that, the women is really his own wife, then he is not blameworthy
How does Cardinal Newman support Aquinas’ view on the conscience ?
Cardinal stresses obedience to ones conscience, as it is more important than anything else
‘[..] conscience first, and to the pope afterwards’
How does Pope Benedict XVI and Hannah Arendt support the view on ‘ratio’ ?
Ratio emphasises using reason to work out and make moral judgments / NOT FOLLOWING THE SOCIETAL NORMS
Pope Benedict
- uses the example of Jesus on trial “they are shouting the same thing that everyone else is shouting […] justice is trampled underfoot”
- emphasises the need to use our ratio to make moral decisions
Hannah Arendt
- writes about the holocaust, and the need to avoid the norms of society as they have become profoundly immoral
‘Conscience is …
reason making rights decisions’
Basically the conscience (conscientia) is the act that follows reason (ratio) being applied to the synderesis
How does the Catholic Church follow Aquinas’ thinking on the conscience ? Quote
‘ A well informed conscience is upright and truthful’
Highly supports this view
On Guilt : Aquinas and Freud
For Aquinas
- guilt is the knowing sense that something is not good, not in accordance with divine law
- but identifies that guilt is not a mechanism that serves as a ‘sin accountant’ for God
- instead is something used to restore the broken relationship between God and the person
- Gods grace expels guilt within a person
For Freud
- for Freud guilt is not the consequence of wrong doing but a result of future wrong doing
- it is the internal conflict between the what you desire and what you should or should to do
On guilt : NIETZCHE supports Freud
“It is the instinct of cruelty”
Freud view on psychosexual development
- in ‘outline of psychoanalysis’, Freud emphasises that the conscience is not rational decision making but is a product of psychological factors
Freud’s 5 stages for psychosexual analysis
Oral - concerning with sucking and sawlling (i.e babies hence why they attempt to put everything)
Anal - concerning the control of withholding and expelling that they enjoy
Phallic - concerning with masturbation, Oedipus complex (all little boys are in love sexually with their mothers)
Latency - absence of sexual motivation
Genital (puberty to adulthood) concerned with sexual intercourse
Freud view on the mind
Unconscious mind = the id / filled with repressed thoughts or feelings, wish fulfilment or gratification
Pre conscious = the ego /the memories not readily available but accessible [ moderation of our behaviour in this way]
Conscious =
Freud QUOTE on guilt
“The more a man controls his aggressiveness, the more intense become the aggressive tendencies”
Alternative views on Conscience : Religious
Augustine
- voice of God speaking to us
- considered most seriously “ see God as your witness”
- people are able to sense right and wrong because God reveals it to us personally
Joseph Butler
- essential part of the human being
- separates us from animals
-Liek Aquinas, it is what we sue to judge an action good or bad - automatic and authoritative
- is “our natural guide, the guide assigned to us by the author of our nature’ / follow conscience always
John Newman
- we can tell right from wrong by guilt / rather than suing reason or conditioning
- our conscience is the ‘voice of the Lawgiver’
- conscience is the messenger from God
Alternative views on Conscious : non religious views
Jean Piaget
- most comprehensive theory of intellectual development psychology
- studied and proposed a universal series of stages through childhood (not like Freud)
- e.g used the marbles game to divide morality into :
Heteronormous morality (looks beyond itself for moral authority)
Autonomous (punishment are in proportion of the action, personal code of conduct)
Fromm
- conscience is influenced by external authority
