Transcript Conscience - Routledge

CONSCIENCE

When your intelligence don’t tell you
something ain’t right, your conscience
gives you a tap you on the shoulder and
says ‘Hold on’. If it don’t, you’re a snake.—
Elvis Presley, American rock 'n' roll icon (1935-1977)

Conscience is God’s presence in man.—
Emmanuel Swedenborg, Swedish-American spiritualist (1688-1772)

Reason often makes mistakes but
conscience never does.— Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler
Shaw), American writer and humourist (1818-1885)
CONSCIENCE
When considering the nature and
function of conscience there are four
questions to keep in mind:
 What is conscience?
 Where does conscience come from?
 Is conscience innate or acquired?
 What is its function in ethical decision
making?

Conscience

What is conscience?
A moral faculty or feeling prompting us to
see that certain actions are morally right
or wrong.
 Conscience can prompt people in
different directions.
 We consider it to be a reliable guide but
it lacks consistency and can lead people
to perform terrible actions.

Timeline
Augustine of Hippo 334-430
 Thomas Aquinas 1224–1274
 Joseph Butler 1692–1752
 John Henry Newman 1801–1890
 Sigmund Freud 1856–1939
 Jean Piaget 1896-1980
 Erich Fromm 1900–1980
 Lawrence Kohlberg 1927–1987

Religious views

Biblical teaching

Augustine

Thomas Aquinas

Joseph Butler

John Henry Newman
Secular Views

Jean Piaget

Erich Fromm

Lawrence Kohlberg

Sigmund Freud
Religious Views

These views rely on an intuitionist
approach – conscience is innate and
comes from God

The Bible – ‘the law written on the heart’
Biblical teaching

It is assumed by some biblical writers and
early Christian teachers that our conscience
is God-given. This view is put clearly in Paul’s
letter to the Romans:

‘When Gentiles, who do not possess the law,
do instinctively what the law requires, these,
though not having the law, are a law to
themselves. They show that what the law
requires is written on their hearts…’
(Romans 2:14-15a)
Augustine

Conscience is the voice of God speaking
to us
Aquinas

All people aim for what is good and sin is
falling short of God’s ideals, but
sometimes even following conscience we
will get it wrong.
Aquinas
Conscience for Aquinas has 2 essential
parts:
Synderesis – the use of right reason by
which we learn basic moral principles and
understand that we have to do good and
avoid evil.
Conscientia – the actual judgement or
decision we make that leads us to act.
Aquinas

Does Aquinas’ rationalistic approach
consider revelation that comes directly
from God?
Aquinas – Reason seeking
Understanding
Accept general
principles
Apply these
principles
with the help of
conscience
to particular
situations
Butler

wrote that the most crucial thing which
distinguished women and men from the
animal world was the possession of the
faculty of reflection or conscience.

So being human involves being moral.

Conscience is a person’s God-given guide
to right conduct and its demands must
therefore always be followed.
Butler
Conscience comes from God and must be
obeyed
Conscience will harmonise self love and
benevolence
Butler
the consequence of an action is not what
makes it right or wrong as that has already
happened
 the purpose of conscience is to guide a
person into a way of life that will make them
happy
 conscience will harmonise self-love and
benevolence – this may take some sorting
out and so in moral dilemmas we may be
uncertain what to do
 conscience controls human nature

Joseph Butler – conscience comes from God
conscience
principle of
reflection
self-love and
benevolence
basic drives
Newman

Conscience is the voice of God

‘If, as is the case, we feel responsibility, are
ashamed, are frightened, at transgressing
the voice of conscience, this implies there
is One to whom we are responsible,
before whom we are ashamed, whose
claims upon us we fear.’
Freud
The human personality consists of three areas:
 the superego – the set of moral controls
given to us by outside influences. It is our
moral code or conscience and is often in
conflict with the Id.
 the ego – the conscious self, the part seem
by the outside world.
 id – the unconscious self, the part of the
mind containing basic drives and repressed
memories. It is amoral, has no concerns
about right and wrong and is only concerned
with itself.
Freud
Conscience is most clearly connected
with the sense of guilt that we feel when
we go against our conscience. Conscience
then is simply a construct of the mind.
 In religious people this would be in
response to perceptions of God.
 In non-religious people it would be their
responses to externally imposed
authority.

Freud

The content of our consciences are
shaped by our experiences

The superego internalises the disapproval
of others and creates the guilty
conscience
Piaget

A child’s moral sense develops and the
ability to reason morally depends on
cognitive development.
Piaget
Two stages of moral development:

Heteronomous morality (between the
ages of 5 and 10 years) when the
conscience is still immature, rules are not
to be broken and punishment is expected
if a rule is broken. The consequences of
an action will show if it is right or wrong.
Piaget

Autonomous morality (10+) when
children develop their own rules and
understand how rules operate in and help
society. The move towards autonomous
morality occurs when the child is less
dependant on others for moral authority.
Kohlberg

Identified stages of moral development
which he believed individuals had to
follow in sequence.
Kohlberg
People move from:
 behaving in socially acceptable ways because
they are told to do so by authority figures
and want to gain approval,
 to keeping the law
 to caring for others
 and finally respect for universal principles
and the demands of an individual conscience.

◦ Kohlberg felt that most adults never got beyond
keeping the law.
Fromm– Authoritarian Conscience
all humans are influenced by external
authorities which apply rules and
punishments for breaking them
 these are internalised by the individual
 a guilty conscience is a result of
displeasing the authority
 disobedience produces guilt which makes
us more submissive to the authority

Fromm – Humanistic Conscience
Fromm’s views changed over time
He saw the humanistic conscience as being
much healthier as it assesses and evaluates
our behaviour.
 We use it to judge how successful we are as
people.
 We use our own discoveries in life and the
teachings and example of others to give us
personal integrity and moral honesty.
 This is the opposite to the slavish obedience
and conformity of the authoritarian
conscience.


Other views of conscience
Vincent MacNamara – conscience is an
awareness or attitude – seeing goodness and
truth as important
 Richard Gula – conscience is a way of seeing
the world and responding through the
choices we make
 Daniel Maguire – conscience is discerning
the best moral choice. This involves reason,
but also shared experiences of the past and
of culture, as well as our personal
experiences.

Problems
For Christians conscience is often
regarded as the voice of God. However,
this raises some serious questions:
 If we always knew that what our
conscience told us to do was God’s
command then we would never make
mistakes
 However, we do make mistakes
 If we can’t hear God properly – whose
fault is it?

Problems

Christians often have disagreements over
moral issues such as abortion.

So are things not as clear cut as ‘the voice
of God’ definition of conscience suggests?
Problems
Many atheists claim that conscience is
important to them.
 Such claims do not rely upon God.
 For atheists, agnostics and humanists,
conscience is part of being human and
there is no need to involve God when
moral decisions have to be made.
 Conscience appears to be a universal part
of human moral living.

Conscience

Conscience implies personal
responsibility:
“And perhaps a little demythologising may
be in order, for conscience is not a still
small voice, not bells, nor a blind stab in
the dark; it is simply me coming to a
decision. When I say ‘my conscience tells
me’ all I am really saying is ‘I think’.” (Jack
Mahoney – Seeking the Spirit)
Conscience

Is it innate or acquired?

Or both?