Conscience
- Created by: AroojTahir
- Created on: 23-04-19 22:18
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- Conscience
- Aquinas on conscience-Syneresis+Conscientia
- Reasoning and God
- Aquinas uses the idea of right reason-recta ratio.
- Ability to reason is given by God result of being created in God's image. Our responsibility to use God- given reasoning correctly.
- Through developing intellectual virtue of prudence= the ability to make judgements based on circumstances we find ourselves in.
- Synderesis and conscientia
- Aquinas "mind of man making moral judgements"
- Synderesis: natural inclination as we seek to "do good and avoid evil".
- Involves our awareness of what moral rules are.
- Habit of reasoning we develop with practise, understand to apply it to moral rules.
- "It is therefore clear that 'syneresis' is not a power but a natural habit" Aquinas.
- Conscientia
- Responsible to educate consciousness so we become better at reasoning and develop our conscience through right reason.
- Practical working of syneresis.
- Intellectual process of making actual moral judgements and apply them to our consciousness.
- Fletcher: conscience is a verb not a noun.
- "Conscience is not a power, but an act" Aquinas
- Psychosexula development- Oedipus complex
- Freud: psychological problems by sexuality- childhood libido.
- Male child in presexual development, fixation for mother and sees father as obstacle.
- Child fearful and jealous of father, eventually admires him. Repressed feelings of guilt.
- Reasoning and God
- Assessing Aquinas' Theological Approach to Conscience
- Supporting Aquinas' view:
- Aquinas argues that the conscience is rational. Gut instinct.
- Conscience can be mistaken, make moral mistakes. Hard when they link to God.
- Explains how we change and develop our conscience.
- Explains moral disagreement. If God communicated we would all agree on what these standards are.
- Difficulties for Aquinas' view
- Doesn't fit with our experience of conscience feelings. More initiative and emotion.
- Doesn't prioritise divine relation- Many Christians believe God communicates with us directly.
- Aquinas doesn't take social+environmental factors into account.
- Supporting Aquinas' view:
- Assessing conscience as psychological or from society
- Supporting Freud's view
- Freud looks at psychological experience go guilt= explanation. Unlike Aquinas who passes by how we initially experience.
- Explanation as scientific. Ground explanation in empirical facts.
- Some support conscience as unreal.
- Piaget- link morality+conscience with childhood development.
- Difficulties
- Freud assumes a natural explanation of guilt; from God?
- Freud's morality links to moral values of upbringing and reveal differences in moral values. Shared regardless of culture.
- Freud's work wouldn't be falsified. Popper argues and would say its not science.
- Supporting Freud's view
- Comparing Aquinas and Freud
- The concept of guilt
- Freud-feelings of guilt and seek to explain it.
- Aquinas- not intersted in psychosocial issues like guilt and responsibility.
- Aquinas sees reason as important- start with rationality. God given.
- Aquinas- guilt by product of acting against conscience. Logical.
- Freud: conscience is guilt, not objective guilt.
- Psychological phenomenonnot logical- Freud.
- The concept of guilt
- Aquinas- vincible and invincible ignorance
- Aquinas-conscience making mistakes
- We can make mistakes when we don't educate our conscience- application of rules.
- Aquinas argues we develop our conscience and gain experience of reasoning. Develop phronesis.
- Aquinas categorises errors: vincible ignorance and invincible ignorance
- Vincible ignorance: lack of knowledge where the person is responsible.
- Invincible ignorance: lack of knowledge where a person isn't at fault.
- Newman
- Inner voice.
- Starts on experience of conscience and argues its key to our psychology like our memory.
- God's voice speaking to us. Authorative voice we should obey.
- Experience guilt when we disobey.
- Aquinas-conscience making mistakes
- Freud's psychological view on consicence
- Three layers of conscience
- Consciousness: thoughts and desires that we can do and expiernce
- Preconscious: thoughts and feelings we aren't experiencing but come to the surface.
- Unconsciousness: thoughts and feelings that buried beneath surface of our mind and cant be retrieved.
- Freud and personality
- Ego: conscious itself, part seen by outside world.
- Id: unconscious which contains basic desires (sex and death). Ego reasons with id. Superego within the ego.
- SuperegoL set of moral controls given by authority and ID.
- Forming super ego and guilt
- Freud- conscience is super ego explained psychologically- society and parents.
- Reaction to demands we cant live up to. Internalise voice of parents.
- Gap between ego (who we actually are) and demands of super-ego (idea of ideal person formed by early interaction).
- Guilt when we go against the conscience/superego.
- Superego 'retains the character of the father' other significant figures.
- Aquinas= God+religion bring wholeness. Follow divine law+right reasoning, conscience helps us to become better people.
- Freud-religion based on ide a of God causes neuroses and prevents us from becoming psychologically whole.
- Freud rules out God. Super-ego could be part of our God- given personality and framework.
- Aquinas God creates humanity+ provides tool of conscience.
- The process of moral decision making
- Aquinas-moral decision rational and involves decisions about what God requires us to do.
- Freud- moral decision making is a reflection on needs of id and superego, theyre often unconscious instincts.
- Freud-moral thinking learned+caused. Not innate+free.
- Cant help feeling guilty. Gap between ego and super ego large.
- Not obliged to follow demands of conscience-moral standards irrational.
- Good superego=upbringing. Rational controls emotions+ instincts.
- Fromm alternative psychological explanation
- Authoriatian conscience: conscience begins with fear of authority. Intense feelings of fear and innervoice. Good authorial conscience gives us a self of wellbeing and security.
- Untitled
- Three layers of conscience
- Aquinas on conscience-Syneresis+Conscientia
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