CONSCIENCE

When your intelligence dont tell you something aint right, your conscience gives you a tap you on the shoulder and says Hold on. If it dont, youre a snake. Elvis Presley, American rock 'n' roll icon (19351977)

Conscience is Gods 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 12241274 Joseph Butler 16921752 John Henry Newman 18011890 Sigmund Freud 18561939 Jean Piaget 1896-1980 Erich Fromm 19001980 Lawrence Kohlberg 19271987

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 Pauls 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 Gods 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 persons God-given guide to right conduct and its demands must therefore always be

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 childs 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

Fromms 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 Gods command then we would never make mistakes However, we do make mistakes If we cant 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?