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Religion and Ethics > Conscience - Aquinas and Freud > Flashcards

Conscience - Aquinas and Freud Flashcards

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1
Q

What is Ratio, how does Aquinas link this to the conscience?

A

Reason
- ‘practica ratio’ is the practical application of reason, as the moral life is a practical life
- He believed this was the thing that separated humans from animals and is the reason humans deliberate over moral matters
- This is given to us by God (Genesis 1:27) we are made in the image of God

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2
Q

How does Ratio connect us to the eternal realm?

A
  • Inspired by Romans 1:20 he believed that we can move from knowledge of this world to knowledge of the eternal world
  • People have a sense of wrongness and rightness, our ratio to make moral judgements connects us to the higher realm
  • This is because ratio is given to us by God as the ability to reason and make moral judgements - exclusive to humans
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3
Q

How does Pope Benedict XVI think of Ratio and its place in society? (Quote)

A
  • Believes using ratio and acting morally is not about doing what is culturally, socially or politically acceptable
  • It is about using your reason and identifying what you must do
  • “Quiet voice of the conscience is drowned out… evil draws its power from indecision and concern for what people think”
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4
Q

What does Hannah Ardent believe about individual ability to use reason and your conscience to identify right and wrong? (Quote)

A
  • Believes that when the norms of society become immoral you must reject them (referring to the holocaust)
  • “capable of telling right from wrong even… all they have to guide is them is their own moral judgement”
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5
Q

What is prudence and how does it link to the conscience?

A
  • Prudence is the consideration of actions and the application to the action
  • It is; Understanding, Judgement and Good deliberation
  • Our conscience also uses prudence to act circumstantially and understand what the best thing to do is
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6
Q

Quote Servais Pinckaers on prudence and the conscience?

A

“St Thomas saw conscience and prudence as two converging lights coming from the same source”
“both share the object of the discernment between good and evil”

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7
Q

Quote Aquinas in his Summa Theologica about what the conscience is?

A

“conscience is not a power, but an act… the application of knowledge”

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8
Q

How is Aquinas’ view similar to that of Fletcher?

A
  • Fletcher treats the ‘conscience’ as a verb, an act of doing
  • The same way Aquinas believes the conscience is the practical application of knowledge and reason
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9
Q

What is Synderesis for Aquinas? What does he still note despite the principle of Synderesis?

A
  • Synderesis is the natural inclination to do good over evil within humans
  • Just because we have an inclination to do good does not make it infallible that desire leads to the right action
  • Aquinas notes that sensuality can tempt us to do the wrong thing but he remains positive that we can cultivate the habit of synderesis
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10
Q

What is Conscientia? (Quote)

A
  • ‘reason making right decisions’
  • Conscientia is the intellectual process of forming particular judgements in individual moral circumstancesWhat
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11
Q

What is Cardinal Newmans view on the conscience? (Quote)

A
  • He saw the conscience as the ‘aboriginal vicar of Christ’
  • The conscience is a messenger from God, we must follow this divine authority
  • When we disobey were are disobeying God and we feel fear and guilt from this too
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12
Q

What is Joseph Butlers view on the conscience?

A
  • ‘Magisterially exerts itself’, conscience is the judge and the ability to reflect on our actions and come to the right judgements
  • When you disobey the conscience you are straying from mans true nature
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13
Q

Why did Aristotle believe people do wrong things, despite knowing the good thing to do?

A
  • Aristotle was a virtue ethicist
  • He believed that a persons failure to do good was due to bad habits and a lack of courage to do good
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14
Q

What are the two permissible reasons to do wrong for Aristotle?

A
  • Ignorance, we must have full knowledge of the situation we are acting in
  • Lack of Choice, we must fully consent to the action we take
    “Both the terms ‘voluntary’ and ‘involuntary’… used with reference to the moment of action” - Nimochaen Ethics
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15
Q

What is Invincible ignorance for Aquinas?

A
  • Ignorance which cannot be overcome by my own efforts and I cannot be blamed
  • For example not my fault if I bought my friend a holiday and the plane crashed, I could not have foreseen that
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16
Q

For Aquinas, should we always follow the conscience?

A
  • We must ALWAYS follow the conscience
  • Even if the conscience tells us to do the objectively wrong thing to d
  • It is a sin to not follow the conscience
17
Q

What is Aquinas’ reasoning for always following the conscience?

A
  • Due to synderesis we have a natural inclination to do good, and reason decides what is good
  • Therefore what our reason tells us is good is the good that should be pursued
  • If we do not follow our reason we are seeking something that is not good and therefore we are sinning
18
Q

What is the ‘Id’ according to Freud?

A
  • The part of the mind that has instinctive impulses and seeks satisfaction or pleasure
  • These are the immediate wants, operating on the pleasure principle
  • Amoral aspect of the mind
19
Q

What is the ‘Ego’ according to Freud?

A
  • The ego is rational and capable of controlling the Id
  • Moderates our behaviour
  • Acts as the mediator between the Id and Superego to come to decisions
20
Q

What is the analogy Freud uses to describe the relationship between the Id and Ego?

A
  • Analogy of the horse and the rider
  • The horse (Id) is controlled by the Rider (Ego), a good rider is one in control of the horse
  • The same way a good conscience is one where the Ego is in control of the Id
21
Q

What is the Superego for Freud?

A
  • The moral part of the mind that contradicts the Id and uses internalised ideas from parents/society to act morally
  • The clash between all three elements is what creates the phenomenon of conscience
22
Q

What causes guilt for Freud?

A
  • A persons superego is the cause of guilt
  • A stronger superego is the cause of guilt, we feel guilty for not following our moral actions
23
Q

What are the psychosexual stages?

A

The Id expressing its desires through libido, our sexual drives
- Oral stage, child is nursed through the breast
- Anal stage, child has control of its bowels
- Phallic stage, infant is fascinated by their sexual organs
Beyond these stages the child develops awareness of his libido and beyond puberty they are beyond the mere Id and libido

24
Q

How does Freud link the senses of God and human nature?

A
  • Based on the principle that humans feel better and more safe if they can explain the things that make them uncomfortable
  • When we come across a disaster and sing our prayers, its not the prayers that work (Freud was an atheist) but the fact they helped explain and provided an explanation for the word around us
25
Q

What is the Post hoc, propter hoc fallacy?

A
  • Logical error of assuming that because of one event following the next, the second was caused by the first
  • Frued refers to this in prayer, the prayer did not cause the good to happen or evil to stop
26
Q

How does the Oedipus Complex and Primal Horde link to guilt felt by man?

A
  • The Primal Horde was a tribe dominated by the old man who did not let any of the men have any of the women
  • They banded together, killed him and ate him
  • They then realised they needed the regulation and felt guilt for killing the man
27
Q

How does Freud explain monotheism?

A
  • Refers to our childhood experiences, we are dependant on our father for sustenance through their work effort
  • He is a powerful figure in our lives and when he leans over our cot to see us he dominates our vision
  • This is why we see God as a Father and sustains us, perhaps why we see God as a bearded man
  • He sees religion as an error with no basis in the real world with something constructed out of our own needs and desires
28
Q

What does Ludwig Feuerbach see religion as?

A
  • An anthropological understanding of religion
  • Religion is a dream of the human spirit
  • God is a projection of human values and we give them cosmic significance and see them as the universe
  • Dangerous because we may be false to ourselves
29
Q

What is Vincible ignorance for Aquinas?

A
  • Ignorance which we could easily overcome and for which we are blameworthy
  • For example it is not permissible for me to murder in another country and say I didn’t know the legal system

Religion and Ethics (23 decks)

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