✅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
What does conscience give us in butlers view?
Instant intuitive judgements about what we should or shouldn’t do. Our “natural guide, the guide assigned us by the author of our nature”
What is conscience a guide to in butlers view
Guide to moral behaviour, innate and places in us by god.
“Law of our nature”
What does butler say (quote) about consumer being from god?
It is our duty to walk in that path, and follow this guide without looking about to see whether we may not possible forsake them with impunity
When should you act on conscience in butlers view?
You have complete authors to do so without considering the alternatives. You obey the commands of your conscience without reservation.
“It has been proved that man by his nature is a law to himself”
Butler
Butler main quote
“That it is our natural guide and itself alone an obligation, the guide assigned us by the author our our nature ”
Can conscience be wrong in butlers case?
No, it conscience has absolute authority and should be obeyed unquestionably, it could be used to justify ANY ACTION
This is the downfall to his theory, suggest murder could be argued
Who is John Henry Newman?
Cardinal. Intuitionist approach
Who said “conscience is a law of the mind.. is the aboriginal vicar of Christ”
Newman
Where does Newman’s ideas come from?
A letter he wrote to the duke of Norfolk.
What did Newman think of conscience?
Following divine law. Messenger from god, speaking to us.
Was Newman Catholic? And what did his opinions show in his thorights?
Devout Catholic- letter be wrong “I toast the pope, but I toast conscience first”. Catholic’s are obliged to do what they sincerely believe to be right even if they are mistaken
How has Newman’s ideas lead to tension?
Ethical debates where individual conscience comes up against moral absolutes. Such as absolute condemnation of abortion and contraception. Intrinsically wrong because it breaks the intrinsic link between sex and reproduction.
Who is Sigmund Freud?
Psychologist in 20th century. Developed psychoanalysis “the outline of psychoanalysis 1949”
What did Freud think the human psyche was inspired by?
Powerful instinctive respires that demand satisfaction?
What did Freud think about our birth?
Desires surface at our birth, critical to our behaviour up to age of 3 years old. Overriding desires and satisfaction drive the is
What is the id?
Developed from 2 broad categories: desire Eros and desire Thanatos. Eros is life instinct which gives us desire for food and self preservation. Thanatos is the death-instinct, which drives for aggression, domination and self destruction. These 2 are at war within the id.
What is the ego?
Humans create the ego which takes in account realities of the world and society. Children Leena the authorise on the world restrict the extent to which desires are satisfied.
Refers to as the reality principle. As our awareness of self and of others is crucial to our interaction with the world around us.
Age 3-5
What is the superego?
Developed from 5 years onwards, reflects disapproval of others. When parents blame you, you absorb a sense of shame. Superego forbids certain actions and produces a sense of guilt.
Which is the main part of the soul?
Superego, it grows into a life and power of its own irrespective of the rational thought. Restricts humans aggressive powerful desires which could destroy us.
Who does Fromm link to freuds analysis?
Nietzsche- “blockage of freedom turns mans instinct backwards against man himself?”
Case study of freuds thesis
Paul Gascoigne: obsession to tidy and order things. When he was younger, his friends little brother got killed by a truck while he was watching over her.
What does Piaget think of conscience?
Conscience has a nature and immature dimension.
What is the nature aspect of Piaget theory?
Healthy and is identified with the ego’s search for integrity. Concerned with right and wrong
Acts dynamically and responsively. Looks outward to the world and he future
What is the immature aspect of Piaget theory
Comprises of mass of Fulton feelings which humans acquire in their early years from parental and school discipline. These feelings have little to do with the rational importance of the action. Desire to seek approval of others
Piaget experiment
Conducted an experiment to see how conscience develops. Up to the age of 10, children judge right or wrong according to the consequences of the action. Older children begin to like right and wrong with the MOTIVE AND INTENTION. If they didn’t mean to do it, they don’t feel guilty
Why does Piaget different from Aquinas and butler?
Not religious, and it is environmentally induced by upbringing, it isn’t innate. Highly deterministic.
Where did Fromm begin his idea of conscience,
From his history of the holocaust. The evil of nazism. Wrong books to reflect on how conscience and freedom can be subverted even in the most civilised societies.
Who is adolf eichmann?
He was in a trial, can plead at his trial for mass murder in 1961z that he was only “following orders” in applying the final solution. We can invoke fromms ideas of authoritatian conscience
What is authoritarian conscience?
Bad conscience, use someone else’s voice as your own and your own belief. Internalised voice of external authority.
Authority conscience and nazi
Ordinary seemingly civilised human beings do atrocious evil because they are subject to a voice which comes essentially from outside them, bypassing their own Moral sense.
Where does authoritative conscience come from?
Projection onto someone of an image of perfection
The experience of parental rules or expectations
An adopted belief system such as religions with its own authority structure
“Good consince is consciousness of pleasing authority , guilty conscience is consciousness of displeasing it “
Eric Fromm. 1947
What happens when someone chooses an authoritative conscience?
Loses their own autonomy and creativity, or any action which don’t obey the rules of authority, is seen as a rebellion.
Cain:
“My punhsihment is more than I can bear” when he kills his brother
What is the humanistic conscience?
Good and true conscience. Let’s your own voice be louder than authoritative. Humans have intuitive knowledge of what is human inhuman.
Fromm on humanistic
“Our own voice present in every human being, and Independent of external sanctions and rewards”
Fromm book
Man for himself 1947
Newman book
The grammar of assent
What is Aquinas ratio?
Reason and ability to make moral judgements. Distinguishes is from other animals
