role of conscience in making moral decision - telling lies

Question 1

intro

Answer 1

• three roles of conscience is to decide what should be done before making any decision, inform moral agents if their actions where right or wrong & demand particular course of action
• some feel they never need to use their conscience as all decisions have been made in advance
• those who believe the conscience is the voice of God will listen to the voice & do what it instructs and their difficulty lies in knowing they’re genuinely hearing God’s voice

Question 2

role of conscience in making moral decisions by telling lies & breaking promises

Answer 2

• we live in a broadly utilitarian society as telling a lie/breaking a promise if it lead to greatest happiness for greatest number can be seen as morally right
• Aquinas saw these acts as a betrayal of reason
• those with a sociological understanding of conscience see these acts as destabilising society so it is immoral for that reason only
• lying becomes an issue as tempted to lie for our own benefit or when it’s the right thing to do to help others

Question 3

example 1: using reason as conscience (Aquinas)

Answer 3

• conscience would tell individual that telling lies isn’t rational as conflicts with syndresis
• telling lies & breaking promises violated primary precepts of living in ordered society as can’t be ordered if people habitually lie & break promises
• Aquinas is aware of exceptional circumstances & accepts secondary precepts of NML may apply differently in specific cases

Question 4

applying sociological view of conscience

Answer 4

• telling lies/breaking promises be seen as socially destructive as stability of society depends on keeping promises & avoiding lies. Bank notes say ‘promises to pay the bearer on demand’ and to break that promise would bring social mayhem as all banking institutes would fall overnight
• social understanding of this principle may follow Fromm’s idea of authoritarian conscience : individual may not break a promise for fear of society disapproval
• humanistic conscience would inform it breaks ethical norms society needs

Question 5

applying freud’s psychological understanding of conscience

Answer 5

• starts with arrival of guilt, anxiety & remorse surfacing from subconscious mind of individual who tells a lie. these would be the repository of parental commands not to lie or break promises & influence of that authority is so great individual cannot escape its psychological command
• telling lies & breaking promises common in modern society so on Freud’s account this explained why super-ego remains quiet in some people