4. Conscience: Aquinas' approach to Conscience - reason seeking understanding
- Created by: Alasdair
- Created on: 26-06-17 15:18
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- 4. Aquinas' approach to Conscience - reason seeking understanding
- Thomas Aquinas (1224-74) saw conscience as the natural ability of people to understand difference between right and wrong
- The synderesis rule
- All people aim for what is good and try to avoid the bad
- Innate to seek the good
- Sin is falling short of God's ideals
- Because they are not using their powers of reason properly
- Seeking what people think is good and is actually bad
- Because they are not using their powers of reason properly
- Seeking what people think is good and is actually bad
- Sin is falling short of God's ideals
- Understood that different societies have different views on what is right and what is wrong
- Also understood that though he says people should always follow their conscience, he does see that people will sometimes get things wrong and make the wrong choices
- Conscience "was the mind of man making moral judgements" and described is as containing two essential parts:
- Synderesis
- Repeated use of what Aquinas termed as 'right' reason, by which a person acquires knowledge of basic moral principles and understands that it is important to do good and avoid evil
- Conscienta
- Actual course of action based upon these principles
- Conscience, there, for Aquinas, is bieng able both to distinguish right from wrong and to make decisions when a person is confronted with difficult moral decisions
- Repeated use of what Aquinas termed as 'right' reason, by which a person acquires knowledge of basic moral principles and understands that it is important to do good and avoid evil
- Conscience, there, for Aquinas, is bieng able both to distinguish right from wrong and to make decisions when a person is confronted with difficult moral decisions
- Actual course of action based upon these principles
- Synderesis
- When Aquinas says it is always right to follow your conscience
- He means that it is always right to apply your moral principles to each situation as best you can
- He does not mean that if you follow your conscience you are always right
- As if your principles are wrong, your conscience will be wrong too
- Conscience is reasoning used correctly to find out what God sees is good
- Conscience is not just a voice inside us
- Criticisms:
- Some Christians would say Aquinas's rationalistic approach does not consider revelation that comes directly from God
- Assumes same natural yet ethical law guide all human beings
- He does not take into account that fact that different societies may have different moral laws and as a result conscience may vary
- Assumes conscience of each human being points to telos of goodness and is not variable from person to person
- How is sense to be made of fact that people can, in all conscience, reach totally different conclusions on important ethical issues?
- Aquinas's counter argument
- Asserts that this would not be case if right reason were employed
- Assumes conscience is grounded in Natural Law
- It is argued that fundamental understanding of nature that this theory is based on is no longer consistent with modern understanding of how nature works, e.g. Naturalistic Fallacy
- However, view of Conscience is consistent with Natural Law
- It is argued that fundamental understanding of nature that this theory is based on is no longer consistent with modern understanding of how nature works, e.g. Naturalistic Fallacy
- Assumes principles can be linked to reality
- Theory to application
- Idea fits in with Aristolean belief that idea of something precedes its existence
- Indeed, moral principles examined in conscience lead to practical, material decisions
- Some modern philosophers, such as Judith Butler, argue this is an impossible step from a moral principle to an action
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