✅Conscience Flashcards
Where did the study of conscience come from?
Psychology and philosophy. Raises questions about origins and purpose of guilt feelings and feelings of shame in behaviour
What does the bible say on conscience?
No Hebrew word for conscience, although Greek SYNDERESIS picked up by awuinas and Jerome.
Appears in the book of wisdom 17:11.
St. Paul mentions conscience
What did St. Paul say about conscience?
Awareness of what is good and bad, values it as a measure of pureness of our motives.
However, can be weak or mistaken, sometimes we may not have the will to act on it. Paul believed conscience lay at the centre of our being, all humans have irrespective of their faith.
“For this is what we boast about: our conscience testifies thag we have conducted ourselves with pure motives and godly sincerity”
Corinthians 1:12
“I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate..”
Romans 7:15
Romans 2:15
The gentiles can demonstrate the effects of the law engraved on their heady, to which their own consumer bears witness
What does awuinas think of conscience
Innate source of good and evil, sudereste and judgement derived from our reason- conscientia.
What does aquinas think of synderesis?
Saw consequence as an innate instinct from distinguishing right from wrong. SYNDERESIS can be defined as: a natural disposition of the human mind by which we instinctively understand the first principles of morality”
What is conscientia?
Power of reason for working out what was good and what was evil, the “application of knowledge to activity”. Closer to moral judgement rather than instinct.
What is conscientia similar to?
Aristotles phronesis- practical wisdom. We cannot flourish without it. In practical situations, we have to make a voice and weigh alternatives and we do so by conscience.
What did awuinas think about conscience making a mistake?
Can make mistakes and have to be trained in wisdom. People do bad things because they make a mistake in discriminating good from evil. If conscience makes a factual mistake, it’s not your fault.
What example does awuinas use for faulty conscience?
If a man sleeps with another mans wife, thinking she was his wife, then he is not morally blameworthy because he acted in good faith
Awuinas quote in summa theologica
Conscience is reason making right decision and not a voice giving us commands
Mans reasoning is a kind of movement which begins with the understanding of certain things that are naturally known as immutable principle
Awuinas summa theologica
What is SYNDERESIS?
Disposition rather than a power. QUALITY that leads us towards good. Nature needs to implant in us the first principles.
“Conscience is an act not a power”
Awuinas. Thirteenth article. Signifies the relation of knowledge to something else since we define con-science as knowledge with something else.
What does conscience bear?
Witness, obliged or stirs into action and accuses or disquiets or reproves. All these things result from connecting knowledge
What are awuinas 3 ways
1- we recognise our knowledge to something as we by our conscience judge that we should or shouldn’t do
2- we connect our knowledge to soemthing as we by our conscience judge that we should or shouldn’t do soemthing
3- we connect our knowledge to soemthing as we by our conscience judge that we have or haven’t done something
Summary of awuinas theee ways
1- cant just tell what’s R or W , god given
2- regrets- guilt. Conscience tells us what’s wrong
3-heat or feel conscience- good or bad
Who is joseph butler?
Anglican theologian, identifies conscience as the ultimate decision maker
What is butlers view on conscience
Innate , something we are born with and given by god to guide is.
What does butler say about conscience
There is a principle of reflection in men, by which then distinguish between approval and disapproval of their own actions. This principle in man.. is conscience
15 sermons
What are butlers 2 basic principles?
Self love and love of other- altruism
What does conscience direct ? Butler
Conscience directs us towards acting for the happiness or interest of others instead of focusing on ourselves
What does Aquinas and butler agree on
Conscience determines and judges the righteousness and wrongness of actions. Went out to say that conscience operates in situations without any introspection and is the ultimate authority.
Had it strength as it had right- had it power as it had manisfest authority
Butler, 15 sermons 1736