Conscience A01 Flashcards
What does the word conscience mean
The word ‘conscience’ simply means ‘with knowledge’ and is connected to people knowing what they are doing
‘By conscience’ meaning
Meant the sense of right and wrong in an individual described variously by philosophers as a reflection of the voice of God as a human faculty as the voice of reason or as a special moral sense
Judicial conscience
Judgement of past actions and links to teh Roman catholic notion of confession
Legislative conscience
Judgement on future acts
What is the Bible’s relationship to the conscience
Makes no reference to the word ‘conscience’ however the New Testament implies that the ability to evaluate actions in a moral context and to act accordingly is an integral aspect of the human nature a person neglects their conscience at their own peril.
Freud’s psychological approach to conscience
Id, Ego, superego
What is the conscience according to Freud ?
Essentially conscience are feelings of guilt that stem from repression caused by authority.
What does this mean
1) Clash between the id, supergo and ego
2) Repressed sexual desires
3) Influences from authority and religous cause guilt
What does Freud create ?
Hypothetical categories within the mind as ‘‘psychic apparatus’’
What are the psychic apparatus ? Freud
EGO - rational and conscious self which relates to the outside world
ID - unconscious self which contains the basic desires and drives, following the ‘‘primitive pleasure’’ principle
SUPEREGO - Set of moral controls influenced by authority and opposed to the id.
Where does conscience come from ? Freud
Conflict between the id and superego and can be explained psychologically
What is conscience then? Freud
Repository of the internalised moral standards of society and are the values instilled in us by figures of authority
What is guilt caused by ? Freud
when our conscious mind, the ego, rebels against the unconscious internalised moral standards, the superego we experience feelings of guilt.
Where does this situate Freud ( in terms of rationalism and intuitism etc)
Conscience is neither rational or intuitionist it is the inevitable mental conflict between primal desires and restraint of the super ego
PSYCHO-SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT
according to Freud, a series of stages that children pass through in which pleasure, or gratification, focuses on a particular biological function and body part
What does the Oedipus complex show ?
Explains who our conscious desires are repressed by our unconscious mind
What does Freud claim in this theory ?
Male child in its pre-sexual development will develop a sexual fixation for his mother and subsequently develop hatred for his father who he will see as an obstacle to those desires.
What happens to this desire ? Oedipus complex
Suppressed into the unconscious mind as he comes to admire his father and will therefore develop into feelings of guilt even neuroses
What does this mean about early upbringing
We accept certain moral values enforced on us by religion or society
What is this account of the conscience based on ? Freud
Experiences - nothing is God given
What does this mean for morality? - Freud
There are no absolute moral laws, all our moral codes, the contents of our consciences are shaped by experiences and culturally dependent and this explains the differences in moral code between societies
What does Aquinas provide in regard to conscience ?
Theological rational explanations
Practio ratio
Reason
Synderesis
Sense of morality, do good and avoid evil
Conscientia
Individual act of conscience
Apparent and real good
Strayed from synderesis
What did Aquinas not share ?
Common belief that conscience is a special power or part of our mind that tells us what is right or wrong
What did Aquinas suggest instead ?
Conscience was a process of applying right reason ( recta ratio) in order to develop the intellectual virtue of prudence or pronesis; teh ability to reason was given from God as a result of being created imago dei
What does reason allow us to do ?
Through application of reason, one is able to access and develop synderesis, the natural inclination to ‘‘do good and avoid evil.’’
Aquinas highlights that ‘‘Synderesis is not a power but a natural habit’’ whihc allows us to apply moral rules.
What does this mean conscientia is ?
Practical outworking of synderesis in order to make and apply moral judgements
Give a quote to illuminate this ?
Conscience is ‘‘not a power but an act … knowledge applied to individual cases’’ ( summa theologica)
Like Fletcher it is not a noun but a verb.
What do we have a responsibility to do ? - Aquinas
Develop Phronesis and prudence through the repeated use of reason, in order to avoid making moral errors.
Why does one make a moral error ?
Because of …
1) Vincible ignorance -> Lack of knowledge for which a person is responsible and can be blamed
2) Invincible ignorance -> Lack of knowledge for whihc a person isn’t responsible and cannot be blamed.
Give an example of this vincible knowledge
A man sleeping with another woman because he is unaware of the rule against adultery is responsible as he developed right reason
Give an example of invincible knowledge ?
A man who sleeps with a woman who believes to be his wife knowing adultery is wrong isn’t responsible as this wasn’t a result of a lack of prudence
What does the theory recognise here ?
Synderesis doesn’t lead to the right actions or conscience (applied reason) can be corrupted or mistaken
Why must we follow conscience ?
We are obliged to follow our conscience as it is the ability to make moral decisions given by God, to not use this conscience would be to reject God’s will
