conscience Flashcards
Practica ratio.
Reason, placed in all people by God, which carefully judges individual circumtances and how they should be dealt with.
Aquinas and Aristotle’s example of an architect.
An architect uses ‘practica ratio’ to know what to use and how to use them to build a building which accommodates the requirements and limitations.
Aquinas on prudence.
[Prudence] “entails not only consideration of the reason but also the application to action.”
Servais Pinckaers on Aquinas.
“Saw conscience and prudence as two converging lights coming from the same source […] both share the object of the discernment between good and evil.”
Where is Aquinas’ summary of conscience.
Summa Theologica.
How does Fletcher treat conscience.
As a verb, refering to action.
Synderesis.
Inner principle implanted by God to direct one away from evil and towards good.
Why is synderises infallible according to Aquinas
It could never be wrong to wish toward good and away from evil.
Conscientia.
Intellectual process behind formation of moral judgements or actions.
Why conscientia fallible.
Because we could be mistaken about facts, overcome by desires, feel pressures or be too hasty.
Why did Plato believe we make mistakes.
Out of ignorance of what true good is.
Who inspired Aquinas’ views on moral responsibility.
Aristotle.
Aquinas’ teachings on committing a sin.
One must have full knowledge and full consent.
Vincible ignorance.
Ignorance which we could have easily overcome and so can be morally blamed.
Invincible ignorance.
Ignorance we could not have overcome thus cannot be held morally responsible for.
Id.
Primitive part of human psyche which seeks immediate gratification and pleasure.
Ego.
The rational part of psyche which mediates between the Id and societal norms/demands.
Super-ego.
The part of our psyche made of the internalised voice of our parents which makes our ego act morally to avoid feelings of guilt or punishment.
Libido.
Foundation of our Id which is the energy of primitive instincts and our drive towards pleasure.
The five psychosexual stages.
Oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital.
Psychosexual development.
The developing awareness of our libido through the five psychosexual stages during infancy.
What Freud claims is the origin of our guilty feelings.
Men’s collective guilt about sexual instincts, which intensifies as the Oedipus Complex is shamed and repressed.
‘Post hoc, propter hoc’ fallacy.
‘After this, because of this’; logical eror of assuming that an event following another is necessarily and directly caused by the first event.
John Hick on Freud.
He explains how the experience of nature may be a way of God revealing his power to humans and connections to us.
Freud on polytheism and guilt.
Primitive mankind would have lived in a constant state of fear, so would personalise terrifying things to make them controllable, resulting in giving sacrafices and gifts to a God to make these terrifying events cease.
Freud on a monotheistic God.
We are dependant on a distant, dominant, working father during childhood and grow up to project our need/reliance on this onto the universe.
John Henry Newman on conscience.
“Aboriginal vicar of Christ.”
Karl Popper on psychology.
Based on hypothesis which cannot be falsifiable.
Piaget’s findings.
Children around or under 8 do not cognitively comprehend why they have been told something is bad, but only understand something is bad because someone has told them it. After 11, however, children gain cognitive autonomy and can deviate from what they have been told is wrong.
