Revision:The Conscience

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St Paul

In the New Testament the Greek word used for conscience is synderesis. This is the pain suffered by the one who goes against his or her moral principle. In Romans 2:15 Paul described the conscience as the witness to the requirements of the law being written on the hearts of those who are not under the law. In other words the conscience acts as a guide even where specific moral principles are not taken into consideration.

Strengths

It can be argued that St Paul’s conscience theory can be followed regardless of religious beliefs

Criticisms

Some people may argue that St Paul’s idea of the conscience is undeveloped therefore making it inchoate. There is no evidence to back up what he is saying as any reference to the conscience in the bible can only be referred to St Paul’s biblical writings.

Thomas Aquinas

St Thomas Aquinas believed that the conscience was a device or faculty for distinguishing right from wrong through use of reason. He believed that it is a natural part of mental activity and provides an individual with moral guidance.

He argued that there are 2 parts to making a moral decision:

• The synderesis: This is the right reason, the awareness of being able to do good and prevent evil
• The conscienta: it distinguishes between right and wrong applies this knowledge and makes the moral decision

Although he thought that people basically tended towards the good He also believed that sometimes working out what good and evil things were was the main problem.

Aquinas claimed that there are 2 ways of behaving badly:

• To do what is known to be wrong
• To go against one’s conscience

Aquinas thought that the reason people sometimes did evil deeds was because they had made a mistake and their conscience was mistaken. He believed that those who did wrong pursued an apparent good and not a real good. He believed that the error was to be treated in one of the following two ways:

• A factual mistake were the individual did not know that a general rule applied to a particular situation (i.e. the individual is not responsible for the wrongdoing)
• A mistake that was due to ignorance (i.e. the person is responsible for the wrongdoing)

For Aquinas conscience is the act of applying our knowledge of good and evil to what we do. He believed that the conscience derived its authority from God. God can and does also supernaturally reveal what is and is not in accordance with his will. Our conscience is our realisation that what we might do or have done is good or not but is not the actual doing or choosing.

Therefore one cannot do the right thing if one does not know what the right thing is.

From this Aquinas therefore concluded that only one is excused from wrong doing if one’s conscience is in error one is also bound to do the wrong thing if one’s conscience tells one that it is the right thing to do.

Strengths

• Aquinas has shown how all humanity can reason right and wrong yet make wrong decisions and as such retained a degree of accountability for one’s actions unlike Butler’s conscience theory.

• His theory can also be followed regardless of religious beliefs therefore it can be argued that all people can be held to be morally responsible.

• It agrees with Piaget’s idea that the conscience is manufactured from experiences and conditioning as Aquinas argued that children do not have fully formed conscience

Criticisms

• It can be argued that following our conscience can lead us to make a moral decision and that reason can also result us to making different decisions.

• Butler will argue that the conscience should always be followed no matter what unlike Aquinas who says that the conscience can be mistaken or misguided

Butler

Butler believed that humans share a human nature and that morality is simply a mater of following human nature. He believed that humans were influenced by self-love (desire for happiness for the self) and benevolence (desire for the happiness of others).

Butler suggests that the conscience adjudicates between these two interests and it behaves as a guide. The conscience is a gift from God and has the absolute supreme & ultimate authority in ethical judgement and its role is to show the way towards the good. It then directs us towards focusing on the benevolence and away from self-love. For butler it is an intrinsic part of human nature and to dismiss morality (which psychologists like Freud & Piaget does) is to deny that intrinsic part of human nature.

Butler also believed that the conscience is our guide to moral behaviour, put there by God and must be obeyed. Butler believed that if the conscience instructs us to act in a certain way then you should not even consider alternatives, as it is adequate justification to behave in that way. You must obey the conscience unquestionably

Strengths

• Some Christians will agree with Butlers ideas about the conscience, as it is a valid moral argument, for the existing believers, as a rational evidence to support the idea that God exists (or the belief of God).

• G.E Moore also believed and wrote that “ Good cannot be defined yet people know what it means implying some innate sense or intuition” also suggesting that there must be some inner sense of good and evil in what Butler suggest to be our conscience.

• F Hutcheson also argue that it is was people’s natural sense of benevolence not reason which is the source of morality. He also believed that the natural response at the suffering of others indicate an innate human morality. This also complies with Butler’s idea that humans were influenced by benevolence & it is intrinsic part of human nature and to dismiss morality is to deny that intrinsic part of human nature.

Criticisms

• Some people may argue against Butler’s idea that the conscience has absolute authority as some people can use it to justify any action. It is also conceivable that intuitive conscience could be misleading or misinformed. Aquinas may also argue that the conscience may be mislead or misinformed even though some of his ideas about the conscience complies with Butler’s theory of the conscience.

• It could also be argued that Peoples’ ideas of morality is different and could lead to moral anarchy therefore questioning whether the conscience should be followed at all times.

• Even though his theory is a valid moral argument for believers it can also be argued that it raises severe problems for God especially in respect of evil as some people do the vilest things in the name of conscience.

• Atheists may also argue against Butler’s theory as they could also claim that the conscience is important to them with no need of a supernatural element in their decision making.

Freud

Freud’s theory about the development of the conscience is based on his beliefs about the development of the adult mind. He argued that the human mind is split into 3 parts:

ID: Basic instincts and ancient desires such as hunger. This is present at birth

Ego: This balances the ID and the super Ego, perceptions of the external that makes us aware of the “Reality Principle” one’s most outward part and personality. The socialisation of the individual involves the repression of natural but anti-social desires.

Super Ego: The feelings of disapproval of society are internalised to form the super Ego and restricts the instinctive behaviour of the individual. It reflects anger and disapproval of other making a guilty conscience to be created which grows into a life and power of its own, irrespective of the rational thought of the individual

Freud therefore believed that the conscience is pre rational and the inevitable outcome of conflict and aggression. The conflicts caused by the creation of the super- Ego lead to the creation of a guilty conscience that develops into a powerful force independent of reason and instinct. It leads to feelings of guilt based on the perceived expectation of society.

For Freud conscience cannot be the voice of God because of the different opinions on ethical issues as it is the super-ego of the mind (a moral policeman) developed during the phallic stage of childhood. He therefore argued that in order for the psyche to be healthy, there must be a balance between the ego and the super Ego. For Freud, the Christian conscience is bad for a person’s mental health because of the rules and taboos it imposes. Freud’s concept of the conscience is therefore psychoanalytical, a part of the unconscious mind.

Strengths

• It can be argued that the psychology argument works with people with or without religious faith therefore all people can be held morally accountable.

• Piaget also believed as well as Freud that the conscience is manufactured from experiences and conditioning

• Psychology has evidence to support Freud’s ideas about the conscience and has even developed his ideas into the two level conscience. Like Piaget, Freud’s theory of the conscience is also based on research therefore having evidence to support his ideas unlike Aquinas, Paul and Butler conscience theory

Criticisms

Much of Freud’s work has been criticised especially the Oedipus complex as his research was based on small samples and some psychologists argue that it is too simplistic. People will consider the Oedipus complex to be strange as at the age of 3-6 yrs most young children are unaware of anything sexual and do not have sexual desires as Freud explains in the phallic stage. People also will argue that a child has physical, and emotional needs rather than sexual needs

Freud’s argument also falls soul of genetic fallacy as just by understanding the psychological and scientific evidence of how things originate does not dismiss religious arguments which Freud tries to do. His argument does not mean that religions ideas are not true as they can both be compactable.

Even though Freud argues that the Christian conscience is bad for a person’s mental health, William James has observed and argued that religion is often the inspiration of outstanding well-balanced individuals whose lives had made a positive mark on history like Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King.

Piaget

Piaget believes that moral sense is developed alongside other cognitive attributes. He saw stages in the moral reasoning linked to the child’s development with two stages in moral development.

• Heteronymous morality (between ages of 5-11 yrs): In which rules are obeyed with an expectation of swift punishment for lapses

• Autonomous morality (10yrs +): A person begins to develop a personal code of conduct based on perceptions of socially acceptable behaviour patterns and have a more independant decision making process

Piaget believed that most adults use a mixture of these two approaches. When a person becomes less dependant on the views and opinions of others they move from the heteronymous to the autonomous level.

Strengths

Religious believers can also be in support of his theory as the psychological argument can be applied to those with or without religious faith therefore all people can held to be morally accountable

Criticisms

• Even though Piaget based his ideas on psychological findings, psychologists also argue that his findings were based on flawed data because his experiments failed to take various factors into account. Also further psychological experiments on child development have been claimed to discredit his “Stages of Cognitive development” theory.

• Furthermore although Piaget believes that moral sense is developed alongside other cognitive attributes and explains the origins and developments of the conscience it falls foul of genetic fallacy. This is because knowing and explaining the origins of a theory does not dismiss its religious significance.

• It is also argued that there are 3 stages of moral development including theonomous morality, which Piaget fails to mention. Theonomous morality is based on an understanding of God, which includes situation ethics where agapeic love is theonomous. Religious believers will therefore argue that they obey his rules because of the agapeic love of God and not just the fear of God only.

Comments

This can be used for students who are studying religious studies especially the OCR philosophy and ethics Religious Studies sylabus

This was created by Chrisateen