Conscience

just a quick mind map of their thoughts, not criticisms or anything.

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  • Created by: Charlotte
  • Created on: 21-05-13 10:37
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  • Conscience
    • Butler
      • Voice of God
      • Innate & intuition
      • Approval & disapproval of our actions
      • Faculty of reflection
      • Influenced by Aristotle and Aquinas
      • 'In everything  do to others as you would have them do to you' - this is done to have self-love and self-respect.
        • This respect will be transferred to others.
      • Conscience is the means by which an individual makes a moral decision.
      • Conscience directs us towards concentrating on the interests of others and away from love of the self.
    • Newman
      • Conscience is independent of any system of authority.
      • Innate sense of what is right and wrong. We first develop a moral sense by 'the impulse of nature'.
        • This moral sense continues to develop throughout life.
      • There is a link between what is morally wrong and what is against God.
      • Nature gives human beings an awareness of God and goodness.
        • Nurture is capable of destroying this.
      • Conscience is intuitive.
        • Behaves as a guide.
        • Gift from God.
        • Shows the way towards the 'good'.
      • Because it is from God, it should be obeyed without question.
    • Aquinas
      • centred on Natural Law
      • Part of an intellectual, rational approach to derive basic laws what ought to be done in a particular situation.
      • Linked to moral virtues and to Golden Mean.
      • Conscience is the 'application of knowledge to activities'
      • Believed that synderesis was the means of distinguishing between right and wrong.
      • It is a natural part of mental activity - it provides an individual with moral guidance.
      • The error was then to be treated in one of two ways:
        • Factual mistake - where the individual did not know the general rule applied to a particular situation. The individual. Don't know it's wrong.
        • Ignorance of a rule - a mistake that is due to ignorance of a rule that the individual should have known. The individual responsible for the wrongdoing.
      • Conscience can be wrong.
    • Freud
      • Conscience develops from sense of guilt.
        • Child knows that it is wrong to remove one parent to sexually desire the other, yet this wish develops from the physical needs of the child for love and affection.
      • Needs of a child, such as love and affection creates the character of the human psyche.
        • part one of psyche: the id. This is the inner unconscious self. Related to primitive instincts and basic drives of the human character, such as sex or aggresion.
          • The id functions on the pleasure/pain principle and seeks immediate fulfilment, therefore no moral basis.
        • Part two of psyche: the ego is the conscious part of the human psyche. It is the self or the 'I'. It interacts with the physical and social world. It evaluates, plans and restricts desires of the id and being advised by the superego.
        • Part three of psyche:  The superego is the ethical componant. It is the moral conscience that controls the ego's behaviour. Its criticisms and aspirations direct the ego towards a moral outcome, often against the needs of the id.
          • Punishing (conscience) & rewarding (ego-ideal)parent. - requires a balance between ego and superego for the conscience to develop.
            • If the balance between the ego-ideal and the conscience is not right (satisfaction and guilt), then the conscience can be affected.
    • Fromm
      • Our conscience comes from those around us. Authority involves reward and punishment for our actions.
      • Fear of rejection = authoritarian conscience
      • Human beings imagine they have free will. Fromm says this is an illusion. From birth, the human being is reduced into a state of obedience that the individual cannot see.
      • Process of control beginsat birth. Parents control their children. The individual is moulded by the needs of society, as expressed through family
      • It is not the Church or the patriotic state that creates the group conscience in contemporary society, but public opinion.
      • The conscience is pre-determined by soocio-economic forces.
      • 'Man is the only creature enodowed with conscience. His conscience is the voice that calls him  back to himsellf.'
      • Guilty  conscience is the result of displeasing authority. If that authority is God, then the fear of rejection will have a powerful influence on that individual.
        • Disobedience causes guilt and this weakens our power and makes us more submissive to authority.
    • Piaget & Kohlberg
      • All human beings do not have the same conscience.
      • Piaget
        • Two types of conscience: first type is heteronomous morality = develops from the early years until 9/10. This type of moral sense is other-based. The child doesn't have their own moral stance. Decided by parents.
          • Autonomous conscience - mature enough to decide what is morally good for them and what is not. Morality is a matter of self-disapline and not external disapline. This process starts at about 10.
        • Moral conscience is based on observance of rule
        • Relationshipslead to development  of a moral conscience. Early stages based on social control and obediance to rules. Later stages are more open, increasing awareness of need for mutual respect & social harmony.

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