A2 Conscience revision
- 1. A moral sense of right and wrong, especially as felt by a person and affecting behaviour or an inner feeling as to the goodness or otherwise of one’s behaviour.
- 2. Conscience is a God-given ability to reason There are two parts to the conscience: - Synderesis: innate awareness for good and bad. Aim to avoid evil and do good - Conscientia: acting out what synderesis gives: “The application of knowledge of activity” Our conscience is sometimes wrong, but we must still follow it as it is our best guide
- 3. Explains the origin of the conscience Cannot always do the right thing by following our conscience as our principles could be wrong. Explains evil – our conscience can sometimes be wrong, so explains why there are bad people in the world. But, if the conscience is God-given, why is it fallible? His rationalistic approach does not consider revelations from God.
- 4. Saw human nature as hierarchical and at the top is conscience Innate gift from God which must be followed (ultimate authority) as it is not wrong. It sets us apart from animals (as they don’t have a conscience) Conscience creates a balance between these two principles: - Self love: self-interest - Benevolence: concerned with others’ wellbeing Conscience is “our natural guide, the guide assigned to us by the Author of our nature” Conscience Principle of Reflection Self-love and Benevolence Basic human drives (e.g. hunger)
- 5. Our conscience cannot be mistaken as it is God-given, therefore we must listen to it Does not explain how we know what our conscience is, and how we listen to it Clear-cut: “follow your conscience as it is the ultimate authority” It doesn’t explain why people do evil if we have an infallible conscience which is God-given But, wouldn’t this just be free will?
- 6. Uses intuition (Intuitionism) rather than reason. Conscience is innate and a direct order from God. “Voice of God”. It should override other influences as it is always right. It does not invent the truth, but at its best it detects the truth.
- 7. Simple and easy – the conscience is always right, so you can’t make the wrong decision by following it. Some people may use this to their advantage and lie and say their conscience ‘told them’ to do something wrong. It overrides all influences (or should…) so there is no issue of knowing what to follow Does not explain how we know what our conscience is, or how to use our intuition
- 8. Ability/faculty that distinguishes if an act is right/wrong through the use of feelings (i.e.. guilt at doing a wrong act) Id: Primitive basic needs and feelings, libido, selfish desires. Irrational and emotional. Ego: Awareness of not always getting what we want. Negotiates between the Id and Superego. Superego: Last to develop. Stores rules, morals, the conscience – embedded by authority figures. The superego tries to follow absolute laws but the ego must make a balance between it and the Id.
- 9. Explains that the conscience is a balance of psychological features in the brain. Does not explain how to listen to our conscience, other than guilt indicates a wrong action – although, this doesn’t help as the guilt often happens after the wrong act, so can’t be used to determine acts. Explains evil, that it is flawed and may not be developed in some people. Can’t always do right, as the ego makes a balance between the superego (conscience) and the id (needs/wants), so can’t always follow the superego. Easy to follow: if you feel guilty, your conscience is telling you it’s wrong
- 10. Nature: Develops; is not innate or God-given. Role: To form a functional society, to determine the manner in which people act. 0-2: Learn about the world, differentiate themselves, play by themselves. 2-7: Develop language, play in a group, find it hard to empathise with others. 8-11: Think logically, understand concepts of punishment, justice, etc. 11-15: Reason using abstract concepts, think of hypothetical and future situations. Conscience develops.
- 11. Can be appreciated by all: theists can say that God makes the conscience develop, whereas others can appreciate that it’s a biological psychological process. Other research discredits his theory Easy to understand, yet explains the other stages of development, as well as the conscience. Assumes we are all the same in our development The intention of the conscience is to form a functional society Christians may dislike that theonomous theology isn’t mentioned in the moral development stages
- 12. Authoritarian conscience – a guilty conscience is a result of displeasing authority. We learn the set of rules that we obey from authority figures – which are internalised by the individual. Disobedience produces guilt which weakens our power and makes us more submissive to authority. Humanistic conscience judges our success as a human being, it leads us to realise our full potential. Form personal integrity and moral honesty. Similar to Virtue Ethics, by being enriched and developing virtues. Real Conscience: “reaction of ourselves to ourselves; the voice of our true selves”.
- 13. Aims to develop individuals, like Virtue Ethics Individuals can have different Authoritarian consciences: being raised differently can change what makes us feel guilty – it’s not the individual’s fault? Judges our success as a human being, and realising our full potential But, is this unfair to those brought up around negative authority figures, i.e. delinquents/ criminals?