The Human Conscience Flashcards
Latin term for conscience, which in turn comes from what preposition, etymologically that means __
conscientia which in turn comes from the preposition “cum” (with) and the verb “scire” (to know) etymologically means “with knowledge”
Ancient Greek thought already espoused its own notion of conscience called __
syneidesis
this word appeared prominently only in the late Hellenistic period when it became an item of colloquial talk
syneidesis
original term for syneidesis
syn-eidos
act of sharing (__) knowledge or a way of understanding things, and interpreting ideas (__)
syn
eidos
When a person judges a past action, the person becomes ___
both the judge and the one being judged
popular Greco-Roman view held that __
every person possessed a natural inner law and a consciousness of it enabling one to make a moral judgment
is fundamentally an act of self-judgment, a reflexive act of man which presupposes introspection
A conscience
a practical judgement enabling the person to recognize whether the concrete act in a particular situation is good or evil (Diaz, 2019)
Conscience
is a judgement of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he/she is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed
Conscience
Types of conscience
lax
doubtful
certain
scrupulous
erroneous
true
conscience when there is a lack of effort in judging the morality of the act, manifested in being lenient and loose, resulting in a poor sense of what is good or evil
lax
conscience when we judge a simple act to be evil, or a lesser evil to be grave resulting in a inordinate feeling of torment and guilt for no good reason
scrupulous
a conscience when we judge the act that is really evil as good and that which is really good or indifferent as evil
erroneous
some causes of erroneous judgement
Ignorance of Christ and His Gospel
Bad example given by others
Enslavement to one’s passions
assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience
rejection of the Church’s authority
her teaching, lack of conversion and of charity
kind of conscience where we make a correct and moral judgement on the quality of the act
True conscience
when the person is sure of the evilness or goodness of the act
certain conscience
when he/she is not sure
doubtful conscience
FORMATION OF CONSCIENCE
Augustine speaks of the Holy Spirit as the author of both the _____ written on stone and the _____ written on our hearts
law of fear written on stone
law of love written on our hearts
Man’s exercise of ____ presupposes the existence of conscience and the ability to judge and discern
free will (liberum arbitrium)
It is important to _____ one’s conscience properly
form
Christians are expected to form their conscience according to ___ and ___
to the teachings and examples of Jesus Christ as contained in the Scripture (especially in the Gospel accounts)
to the teachings of the Church
It was also the _____ that provided its proper interpretation
Church
is indispensable when one talks about the formation of conscience. It needs familiarity with the contents of the Sacred Scripture and with the teachings of the Church as well as critical thinking in discerning what is true and false, what is good and evil, what is just and unjust, what is acceptable or not, and so forth.
Acquisition of knowledge
