Transcript Conscience - PushMe Press

Conscience
Religious Approaches
Secular Approaches
Modern Approaches
Questions to be asked
• What is conscience?
• Where does conscience
originate?
• Is conscience innate or
acquired?
• What is its function in
ethical decision-making?
Mark Twain
• ‘I have noticed my
conscience for many
years, and I know it
is more trouble and
bother to me than
anything else I
started with.’
Generic Views
• A moral faculty, sense
or feeling which compels
individuals to believe that
particular activities are
morally right or wrong.
– There exists a sense of
moral obligation.
– There implies objective
morality.
• Inherited at birth and
present throughout life.
Problems with Conscience
• Different people’s
consciences tell them to
do very different things
with a clear conscience.
• Individual consciences
seem to change with
the times so that they
perform contrary actions
with a clear conscience.
• Under what conditions
can conscience change?
Religious Influences on
Conscience
• We all have a conscience
that is part of us but not
identified with our
physical makeup.
• Druids believed it was
located in the liver.
Biblical Ideas
•
And the LORD God formed man
of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life; and man became
a living soul. – Genesis 2:7
•
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
Biblical Ideas
• Implications:
– The conscience is Godgiven.
– Morality is objective
– All people have the
same access to
morality.
– By following one’s
conscience one is
following the divine
law.
Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)
Reason seeking
understanding
• The conscience is the
natural ability of people
to understand the
difference between right
and wrong using reason.
• The conscience is ‘The
mind of man making
moral judgements.’
Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)
• People innately aim for
what is good and try to
avoid the bad.
– See Natural Moral Law
• Sin is falling short of
God’s ideals – poor use of
reason.
– See Augustine’s Evil
Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)
• Synderesis (right reason)
• Knowledge and
understanding of moral
principles and values.
• Conscientia (right action)
• The actual ethical
judgements / decisions
a person makes.
Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)
Conscience
 Distinguish right from
wrong
 Make decisions when
confronted with moral
dilemmas.
• It is right to follow your
conscience because it is
right to follow moral
principles.
– Immoral actions occur
because of poor reason.
Joseph Butler (1692 – 1752)
Conscience from God
• ‘There is a principle
reflection in men by
which they distinguish
between approval and
disapproval of their own
actions … this principle in
man … is conscience.’
• This distinguishes us from
animals – we are in touch
with God’s Will.
Joseph Butler (1692 – 1752)
Authority
• The conscience
‘magisterially exerts itself’
spontaneously ‘without
being consulted’
automatically and with
authority .
• ‘Had it strength, as it has
right; had it power as it
has manifest authority: it
would absolutely govern
the world.’
Joseph Butler (1692 – 1752)
Hierarchy of Human Nature
• Conscience
• Principles of reflection
– Approve or disapprove of
our actions
• Impulse of Self-Love
and Benevolence
– selfishness and
selflessness
• Drives
– No thought of
consequence
Joseph Butler (1692 – 1752)
Some Questions
• Is conscience reason or
emotion?
– It doesn’t matter, it’s
God-Given and so must
be observed!
• If conscience identifies
God’s Will, why do some
people commit evil?
– Evil comes from blinding
one’s conscience.
– God Wills It
Joseph Butler (1692 – 1752)
The purpose of conscience
• To guide us to a happy
life.
– Eudaimonia!
• Harmonise self-love and
benevolence.
– Love thy neighbour!
John Henry Newman (18011890)
The Voice of God
• When a person follows
conscience he is
simultaneously and
mysteriously following a
divine law.
- Letter to the Duke of
Norfolk (1874)
John Henry Newman (18011890)
Conscience and Intuition
• Conscience is a
‘messenger’ of God
speaking to us.
• When we make moral
decisions or feel
intuition, that is God’s
voice.
• At its best conscience
detects truth.
John Henry Newman (18011890)
• ‘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.’
- The Grammar of Assent
(chapter 5)
Augustine (354 – 430)
Voice of God
• ‘Return to your
conscience, question it.
…Turn inward, brethren,
and in everything you do,
see God as your witness.’
Secular Influences on
Conscience
• There is no supernatural
entity called conscience.
It is a construct.
Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939)
The mind is mechanistic
Id
The unconscious/
irrational self; drives,
repressed memories.
Super-Ego
Mind controls
established by
outside
influences – in
conflict with the
id.
Ego
The conscious/ rational
self, perceived by the
outside world.
Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939)
Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939)
• Super-ego initialises the
disapproval of others and
creates guilt.
• Conscience is a
psychological construct
associated with religious/
secular authority.
• Moral Codes are shaped
by experience.
Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939)
• The sense of moral
obligation grows into an
internal force.
– There is no thought or
reflection.
• Moral behaviour is
learned and observed,
so action is never free.
Sigmund Freud and the existence of God
The Oedipus Complex
5. Over time, this
homage becomes more
focused and organised
and becomes a belief
in a fictitious God, the
‘leader of all leaders’
1. Feeling of
competition with
father for affection
of mother
2. Tension exists
between this sense of
rivalry and a need for
affection from father
3. In the same
way that pack
animals grow to
resent their leader
to the point of
murder, humans
grow to resent
their fathers.
4. There is guilt, which is
assuaged by paying
homage to the ‘spirit’ of
the dead leader.
Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980)
Development of the
Conscience
• Piaget – A child’s moral
development grows and
the ability to reason
morally depends on
cognitive development.
•
Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980)
Stages of moral
development
• 1. Heteronomous morality
– Consequentialist
– Rules must not be
broken
– There are punishments
• 2. Autonomous morality
– Self-determined rules
– Social cohesion
– Less dependence on
others for guidance
Lawrence Kohlberg –
Development of Conscience
Level 1
– (Pre-Conventional)
• 1. Obedience and
punishment orientation
– How can I avoid
punishment?
• 2. Self-interest
orientation
– What's in it for me?
Lawrence Kohlberg –
Development of Conscience
Level 2
– (Conventional)
• 3. Interpersonal accord
and conformity
– Social norms; the good boy
attitude
• 4. Authority and socialorder maintaining
orientation
– Law and order morality
Lawrence Kohlberg –
Development of Conscience
Level 3
– (Post-Conventional)
• 5. Social contract
orientation
• 6. Universal ethical
principles
Erich Fromm (1900 – 1980)
Authoritarian Conscience
• We are all influenced by
external authorities.
– Religion or Government.
• Individuals internalise
these rules.
– Conscience is subjective.
• Guilty Conscience =
displeasing the authority.
– If the authority is God?
Erich Fromm (1900 – 1980)
Authoritarian Conscience
• Disobedience  Guilt
• Guilt  Weakens Power
• Weakness  Submission
to authority
• Consider the Nazi
Government’s
manipulation of the
Germans.
– Fromm escaped from
Nazi Germany.
Erich Fromm (1900 – 1980)
The Humanistic
Conscience
• We assess and evaluate
our own behaviour.
• Our conscience judges
how successful we are
as people and leads us to
realise our potential.