Conscience A01
- Created by: Lauratrevor
- Created on: 28-03-17 17:14
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- Conscience A01
- Fromm
- Psychoanalyst - followed the foot steps of Piaget and had two approaches to conscience
- The authoritarian conscience
- Fromm thought that all humans were influenced by authority figures who apply rules and punishments for breaking them
- A good authoritarian conscience produces well-being and security.
- A bad authoritarian conscience produces fear and insecurity
- Acting against authority means you will be punished
- It is not just punishment it is rejection
- Acting against authority means you will be punished
- Conscience begins with a fear of authority - a desire to avoid punishment and to be rewarded
- However, whilst it is external, it isn't conscience. You might fear someone but when that person is absent, the feeling subsides. It becomes conscience when those feelings are internalised and affect thoughts and actions.
- The internal voice becomes like an echo of what the authority thinks
- 'acting yourself' brings feelings of guilt as this means you are departing from authority
- The internal voice becomes like an echo of what the authority thinks
- The authoritarian conscience demands are not our own value judgements, but the norms of the authority. they become our norms not because they are good but because they are given by authority. E>G> Hitler believed he was acting according to his conscience even though he did awful things
- However, whilst it is external, it isn't conscience. You might fear someone but when that person is absent, the feeling subsides. It becomes conscience when those feelings are internalised and affect thoughts and actions.
- The humanistic conscience
- Fromm saw this conscience has healthier as it assesses and evaluates behaviour
- This is the conscience we use to judge ourselves as people and to give our lives some moral honesty
- We make good ethical choices because we want to be better people, rather than for dear of punishment
- Augustine
- Similar to later thinker Newman, he sees conscience as the voice of God
- God has given each person knowledge of right and wrong – we know this through conscience
- People are incapable of doing what is right except by God’s help and grace
- The motive for all good deeds must be love for God. (Helping the orphans because you feel sorry for them is not enough)
- Freud
- During our early upbringing we accept certain values and beliefs about morality and society, which may at some stage be rejcted by our moral reasoning
- However, these formed values and beliefs still continue to influence our morality
- Human personality consists o three main areas
- ID - the physical and emotional needs
- Ego - the rational self
- Superego - the restraining self or conscience
- The part that is most closely linked with the feeling of guilt that conscience brings
- The superego internalises the disapproval of other, especially parents and authority
- The superego becomes an 'inner parent', rewarding good behaviour and punishing bad behaviour
- Experiences are what make us who we are; they decide our path
- There can't be any define moral code of conduct or absolute moral law as our individual consciences are shaped by our own experiences
- This is why there are so many ethical codes within societies; they are all part of these external constructs of authority that are determined by our individual experience
- There can't be any define moral code of conduct or absolute moral law as our individual consciences are shaped by our own experiences
- During our early upbringing we accept certain values and beliefs about morality and society, which may at some stage be rejcted by our moral reasoning
- Piaget
- Argues that morality progressively develops through stages throughout childhood, adolescence and adulthood
- Research: playing marbles with children of different ages
- Morality of 5-10 year olds is heteronomous
- Linked to moral realism
- Heteronomous morality is where children see breaking the la/rule as wrong because it brings bad consequences.
- This is considered an immature conscience as it is based only on the approval or disapproval of others
- Morality in children of 10+ is autonomous. this is liked with moral relativism
- Autonomous morality is when children look at motive and intention. This develops at the age of 10+ and children begin to make their own laws and rules which they understand as being for the benefit of all in society
- Morality of 5-10 year olds is heteronomous
- Butler
- Butler believed that we what made humanity different from all other animals was our ability to reason and to rationalise, which he claimed was the evidence for the existence of the conscience
- According to Butler, humans are motivated by two basic principles
- Self love - only interested in our well being
- Benevolence - actively seeking the well-being of others
- Conscience encourages humankind away from selfish low towards focusing on the interest and happiness of of other people.
- Conscience enables us to judge and determine the rightness or wrongness of our actions
- His belief was that it is given to us intuitively and it exerts itself at the correct time without being called upon. For butler it was the ultimate authority in moral judgement.
- Innate
- Natural guide
- If your conscience says to do it, then you must do it
- it comes from God and therefore must be obeyed.
- Newman
- Intuitive
- When someone is following their conscience, they are following a divine law given by God
- Conscience = the voice of God giving moral direction
- Conscience does not create truth but reveals truths that already exist
- Guilt and shame that people feel when they have made an incorrect choice by ignoring the conscience is the consequence of not obeying the voice of God
- You feel guilty as you fear punishment
- Aquinas
- Conscience is innate
- Innate ability to distignuish betweenrigt and wrong which he called synderesis
- People tend towards good and avoid evil
- This does not mean that people never do wrong, ut that they are not deliberately seeking to do wrong
- When people do wrong, they are following an apparent good (which is something that seems the right thing to do, but which does not dit the perfect human ideal), rather tan a real good.
- Aquinas thought that we would discover the real good by using our reason to work out what it is to be a human being and move from potentiality to actuality
- When people do wrong, they are following an apparent good (which is something that seems the right thing to do, but which does not dit the perfect human ideal), rather tan a real good.
- This does not mean that people never do wrong, ut that they are not deliberately seeking to do wrong
- People tend towards good and avoid evil
- Innate ability to make a judgement using reason which he called conscientia
- Reason making right decisions will lead us to natural law according to Aquinas
- Innate ability to distignuish betweenrigt and wrong which he called synderesis
- Saw conscience as reason seeking.
- Conscience is binding, but it could make mistakes
- It could be a mistake becasue the person is ignorant of the rule that they should have known. In this case, the person is responsibile for the wrong doing
- Aquinas said that a person could o a wrong action 'invincibly' through no fault of their own
- Aquinas said that a person could do a wrong action 'vincibly' and deliberately because they have o used their reason correctly to work out all the complexities and ambiguities of a particular decision in a particular situation
- Conscience is innate
- Kohlberg
- Argued that morality develops cognitively.
- Morality progressively develops through stages throughout childhood, adolescence and adulthood
- Argued that morality develops cognitively.
- Fromm
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