Ethics – Conscience

Question 1

What is conscience?

Answer 1

a person’s moral sense of right and wrong, viewed as acting as a guide to one’s behaviour.

Question 2

Kohlberg’s three levels of moral development

Answer 2

pre-conventional, conventional, and post conventional

Question 3

Kohlberg’s pre-conventional stage

Answer 3

‘punishment and obedience’ – our understanding of right and wrong is dependent on what we are rewarded for and punished for

Question 4

Kohlberg’s conventional stage

Answer 4

development of good inter-personal relationships, and concludes with the decision to obey society’s rules and thus void guilt. Many never get past this stage

Question 5

Kohlberg’s post-conventional level

Answer 5

final stage is the level of an individualised conscience. The conscience directs that moral choices must be consistent and universable. To go against conscience leads to feelings of guilt

Question 6

Super-ego

Answer 6

The part of the unconscious mind which controls the instincts that can damage society (eros and thanatos); it is the repository of parental commands delivered from infancy, together with the commands of other authority figures; it manifests through feelings of guilt, remorse and anxiety

Question 7

eros

Answer 7

eros is the life instinct/ the instinct for sexual gratification

Question 8

thanatos

Answer 8

the instinct for aggression, violence and death

Question 9

how does the super-ego develop a person’s morality?

Answer 9

acts as an ‘inner parent’
the conscience is an aspect of the operation of the super-ego. The rules and regulations are internalised so we cannot escape them.

Question 10

What does Freud say that our conscience is a result of

Answer 10

our childhood, our parent’s commands are internalised

Question 11

What does Freud’s views mean for religion?

Answer 11

If conscience is simply an expression of our unconscious application of rules, then it cannot be seen as a voice of God

Question 12

How are the values for Freud’s argument reduced?

Answer 12

it presents conscience simply as a conformity to parental expectations. This reduces the value of conscience

Question 13

What does Durkheim think conscience is

Answer 13

social conditioning – the sanctions that the group brings to bear on the individual

Question 14

Durkheim’s explanation of conscience

Answer 14

a perception of loyalty to the group – for example, having a guilty conscience about the food you eat is your fear of society judging you for being too fat or too thin – to say that someone has no conscience is simply to say that they are socially maladjusted

Question 15

Collective conscience – Durkheim

Answer 15

Conscience which is organic to the social group as a whole – an act is socially bad simply because society disproves it

Question 16

Durkheim’s evolutionary perspective on conscience

Answer 16

Conscience is a survival mechanism developed through people adhering to its shared moral values

Question 17

Authoritarian conscience

Answer 17

the aspect of conscience which represents the internalised voice of a disapproving society which we are afraid to disobey

Question 18

Humanistic conscience

Answer 18

the aspect of the conscience that has an intuitive knowledge of what is human and inhuman: what makes life flourish and what destroys it – a common response of the humanistic conscience is disobedience, where that brings about flourishing

Question 19

Where does Fromm think conscience comes from?

Answer 19

arises out of fear of being shunned and excluded from society because we have been disobedient – he doesn’t think that it would be the inner voice of our deepest nature or convinctions

Question 20

Innate conscience

Answer 20

inborn conscience – originating in the mind

Question 21

Augustine’s view of conscience

Answer 21

conscience is innate – put into human minds by God, amounts to an innate knowledge of God’s moral laws

Question 22

Schleiermacher’s view of conscience

Answer 22

conscience is a source of direct revelation from God – to go against it is not a sin, but a hindrance to a Christian way of life – it takes priority over everything else

Question 23

Problems of conscience is the voice of God speaking to individuals

Answer 23

• evil and suffering suggests that either God is selective in choosing or people are ignoring the voice of God
• it makes ethical discussion and decision-making redundant
• if the conscience is God’s voice then we are not morally free
• throughout history of the Christian Church, Christians have disagreed about moral principles through appealing to these God-given conscience, how is it that there are different answers if they are all from God?

Question 24

Aquinas’ view of conscience

Answer 24

the God-given faculty of reason

Question 25

The Synderesis rule

Answer 25

all human beings seek to do good and avoid evil – they have a natural orientation towards the Good – ‘Good should be done and pursued and evil should be avoided’ is a principle that must govern all human reasoning

Question 26

Aquinas’ view on innate conscience

Answer 26

innate conscience is not the voice of God telling them what to do – rather it is the God-given faculty of reason

Question 27

Features of Aquinas’ conscience

Answer 27

it is fallible/ it can be mistaken:

• if it is ignorant of the moral law that should be applied, then the person is guilty of sin since they should know the law
• it can go wrong if it is not informed about the facts of the case

Question 28

Weaknesses of Aquinas’ argument

Answer 28

ignores the fact that large numbers of people act irrationally because their reasoning powers are limited

Question 29

Strengths of Aquinas’ argument

Answer 29

realistic to say that conscience is not infallible – emphasis on the use of reason is a good argument, since reason allows us to make a freely chosen moral decision, which to many is the essence of being a moral being

Question 30

Butler’s view on conscience

Answer 30

conscience is in human nature: it is a reflective principle placed within us by God

Question 31

What is Butler’s analysis of the conscience based on?

Answer 31

prudence - our natural love of self (egoism)
benevolence - our natural love of others (altruism)
conscience is that part of the hierarchy of the self which judges between prudence and benevolence

Question 32

How does conscience work intuitively for Butler?

Answer 32

consciousness is intuitive and an autonomous judge: there is no sense of approval or disapproval, it is motivated solely by its internal criteria of what is right and what is wrong. It is a natural ability given to human beings, not the voice of God