The conscience in Augustine of Hippo

-God was and is the source of all goodness.

Augustine------> all other supposed virtues such as goodness and justice are just aspects of virtue, which is GOD.

    -divine love binds all the aspects of virtue to the one virtue which is God?

        -The Conscience emerges from this outflow of divine love.

            -The conscience is God's love poured forth to human beings; it is when God speaks to the individual.

Since God is perfect love and virtue any divine experience will reveal the inadequacies of being human and also our inability to do anything about it.

*Conscience is more important than the moral teachings of the Church. Some put it greater than the Bible.

Augustine says the conscience cannot be questioned.  Many find this hard to accept. Is it Gods voice or self-delusion? ,Contradicts God if person A does something different to person B in the same situation.

The conscience in Aquinas

-centered on Natural Law.

-part of an rational approach to derive from basic laws to be done in a particular situation.

  -linked to moral virtues and to the Golden Mean (when something works efficiently by avoiding extremes of excess and deficiency).

Aquinas "application of knowledge to activity", conscience is method by which human being works out what is morally right.

 -distinquishes between 1)Synderesis 2) Conscientia.

1) linked with 'recto ratio' or 'right reason'

1) process of gaining knowledge and sifting through evidence logically.

1) not a command 

2)process of applying right reason to a specific issue.

-------> Conscience comprises…