The Conscience
- Created by: Clare Tweedie
- Created on: 10-11-16 11:15
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- The Conscience
- First applied by Aquinas, who defined it as the mind of man making moral judgements.
- Its part of Natural Law that allows us to derive the basic laws rationally
- In Summa Theologica the conscience is the 'application of knowledge to activity'
- Recto ratio is right reason. it is an intellectual process of gaining knowledge and sifting through evidence logically.
- In Summa Theologica the conscience is the 'application of knowledge to activity'
- weaknesses
- Different societies have different moral laws
- There are different opinions about morals
- Aquinas says that if reasoning is done well then there will be the same conclusion
- If it is part of natural law then isn't consistent with the modern understanding of how nature works
- For Cardinal Newman The Conscience is a messenger of God.
- By following our conscience we are following Divine Law.
- The conscience does not invent the truth it detects it.
- He wrote that "feeling ashamed or frightened at transgressing the voice of conscience, implies that there is one to who we are responsible.
- Influenced by Augustine
- Augustine believed the voice of God whispers to us about what is right and wrong.
- "You must turn inward and see God as your witness"
- It is the divine love.
- The most important element of moral decision making
- The problem with the conscience is that it cannot be questioned.
- Freud had a radically different belief system. He believed our sense of the soul is the mechanistic functioning of the mind, the operation of the Super ego.
- He believed that the conscience is the controlling, restraining self. The values learnt in childhood as we internalize the disapproval of others, creates a guilty conscience, which leads us to our moral decisions.
- A criticism is can you call this a conscience.
- Piaget did not believe in religious explanation and you could see conscience develop over time.
- He was a developmental psychologist
- His theory was that between 11-15 we develop reason through abstract concepts.
- This means people only develop from a heterogeneous morality to a autonomous morality.
- This was supported by Colburge, who believed there were different stages of human development
- This means people only develop from a heterogeneous morality to a autonomous morality.
- Fromm believed that there were two types of conscience.
- An authoritarian conscience which is ruled by external authorities, which if you disobey you are punished by guilt.
- Fromm used the example of Nazi Germany, where people were made to feel guilty by helping the Jews.
- Humanistic approach is where experience gives us moral honesty. It leads us to realize our potential.
- An authoritarian conscience which is ruled by external authorities, which if you disobey you are punished by guilt.
- The Roman Catholic Church believes that the conscience is the law of the heart and that it is a law written by God.
- At the second Vatican Council they said "to obey it is the very dignity of man, according to it we will be judged."
- Problems with the idea of the Conscience with religion.
- People go against this moral conscience. So if its the voice of God who's fault is it if we do bad things/
- Why do Christians have different views on morals.
- The Eurythro Dilemma
- If you're Atheist, why do you have a conscience.
- The Bible say in Jeremiah, "I will put my law in their minds and write it in their hearts."
- The Old and New Testament say that we have a divine morality.
- Oxford Dictionary: "A person's moral sense of right and wrong, viewed as acting as a guide to one's behaviour"
- Joseph Butler, an Anglican Bishop, believed the conscience was the faculty of reflection. This means it separates us from other sentient beings.
- The part of process that humans have when they are aware of their own situation.
- The human being's reflective nature is what develops the conscience.
- The Rolls Sermon were written to encourage criminal lawyers that criminals have no conscience and that is why they they break the law.
- Butler saw the conscience as the voice of God. He thought it was selfish, 'In everything you do to others as you would have them do to you'
- Critisimes
- Self esteem should not be the basis for a conscience.
- It makes all criminals seem innocent instead of guilty.
- First applied by Aquinas, who defined it as the mind of man making moral judgements.
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