Conscience

Question 1

Where might a Christian believe conscience comes from

Answer 1

• g put innate quality of conscience in each of us
• accessible to all even non christs “gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law”
• are diff types of conscience all should be respected

Question 2

What did aug say about conscience

Answer 2

• is lit the voice of g
• is universal
• “there is no soul, however wicked … in who’s conscience g doesn’t speak”

Question 3

What did schleiermacher say about conscience

Answer 3

• is a direct revelation of g
• listening to it is listening to g
• if go against are sinful as disobeying g direct rev - takes priority

Question 4

What did Newman say about conscience

Answer 4

• is a messenger of g speaking to us
• when we make moral decs or feel intuition that’s g voice

Question 5

Issues with aug, schliermacher and newmans views on conscience

Answer 5

• what happens when consc and laws conflict
• evil - can some people ignore g or does he not talk to all
• takes away ability to be free

Question 6

What is aq view on conscience

Answer 6

• is the god given faculty of reason
• centred on natural law
• natural ability of people to understand the diff between right and wrong using reason
  -“the mind of man making moral judgments” - g not telling give ability to work out self

Question 7

What are the two parts of conscience according to aq

Answer 7

• synderisis (innate)
• conscientia (thinking part)

Question 8

What is aq ratio

Answer 8

• reason - special ability humans possess
• god given gift as made in image of g
• is progressive - leads to a judgement
• use to make moral judgments

Question 9

What is aq synderisis

Answer 9

• do good and avoid evil (innate rule)
• should govern all our reasoning
• use ratio to cultivate habit of synderisis
• synderisis principle - have innate knowledge of precepts
• g put synderisis in us as part of our ratio which guides us morally

Question 10

What is aq conscientia

Answer 10

• is applying synderisis - tells is what is good or evil in sits
• act within human when knowledge gained from application of ratio to synderisis is applied to something we do
• “application of knowledge to activity”
• fallible as misapply reason following apparent instead of real goods
• should always be followed as otherwise going against g
• “every judgement of conscience be it right or wrong… is obligatory in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins”

Question 11

Strengths of aq conscience

Answer 11

• explains why conscience can sometimes be incorrect (wrong use of reason)
• puts reason and rationality at centre rather than g
• includes both intuitive knowledge and logical reasoning so everyone can apply
• explains why people have moral disagreements as not from g is from person
• explains why people change moral views over time

Question 12

Weaknesses of aq conscience

Answer 12

• assumes good and evil are the same for everybody and that are orientayed towards good - might be opp - overly optimistic about human nature - naive (wars etc) people know actions are evil and still do
• conscience is experienced as a more immediate intuitive sense rather than a process of deliberation
• ignores influence of culture and environment - args is a rstional process so all cultures should arrive and same conc but dont (arranged marriage)
• obeying conscience wether right or wrong isn’t a helpful concept

Question 13

Weaknesses of ratio

Answer 13

• Barth - corrupted by orig sin can’t reliably use reason
• range of differing moral ops across cultures - less reliable foundation as would expect more consensus if reason were a clear path to moral truth

Question 14

Strength and Weakness of synderisis

Answer 14

Removes moral autonomy and individual thought as must follow a specify uniform nature

Explains moral guilt

Question 15

Strength and weakness of conscientia

Answer 15

Fails to consider impacts of extenrbal factors in shaping moral judgement

Explains how can make mistakes as based on application and reasoned judgement not intuition

Question 16

what kind of approach is freuds conscience

Answer 16

• developmental and secular
• not based on rational dec making or g but a product of psychologixal factors that influence us

Question 17

what is freuds theory of psychosexual development

Answer 17

• 5 stages of dev - oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital
• during phallic stage where super ego/ conscience devs
• oedupis/electra complex

Question 18

what is the o/e complex

Answer 18

• dev sexual attraction to opp sex parents
• cretaes jealousy towards same sex parent
• causes anxiety, resolve feelings of anx by identifying with same sex parent so emmukate and internalise moral vals which forms the superego

Question 19

what is the westermarck effect

Answer 19

have innate tendency to find those we grow up with unattractive due to latent knowledge that are probably genetically similar (evolution)

Question 20

how did freud split the mind

Answer 20

unconscious - fears, trauma, unacceptable desires - impacts behaviuor
preconscious - mems, stored knowledge
conscious - thoughts, perceptions

Question 21

what are the three aspects of the human personality according to freud

Answer 21

• id - unconsciuos animalistic desires, pleasure principle
• ego - conscious dec making self, reality principle (how world is) - policing role for id (horse and rider), balances drives of id and auth from se
• super ego - stores vals were introjected from auth figs during childhood, source of moral feelings - consciemce, monitors what ego is doing, concerned with morality

Question 22

whatt did frued beleive conscience was

Answer 22

• part of super ego - what soc wants
• dev through learning and imparting the rules given to us by childhood
• super ego initialises disappraol of others and creates guikt as have gone against ideal standard of behav have internailsed

Question 23

strengths of frued

Answer 23

• based on psychology rather than theology, attempts to be more scietific using empirical reasearch
• able to explain diff in moral thinking as links ideas of right and wrong to our varied upbringing and culture
• begins with our experience of guilt which is how conscience initially reveals itself to us so seems right to focus an explanation on this
• piaget - had better emp methods of experiment but came to sim conc - before age of 11 assoiate actions as bad due to influence of auth figs (parents)

Question 24

weaknessses of freud

Answer 24

• although can be seen as empirical and scientific, the research was baseed on is limited, his analysis was based on a small no of patints with psychologucal peobs - diff to generealise findings to while pop
• popper - frueds theory is unfalsifiabel (cant be proved wrong) as bases ideas on the unconsciuos so not proper science
• the link between childhood experiences and consc would surely reveal more diff in cons but have large similarity between diff people

Question 25

similarities of aq and f on guilt

Answer 25

- link between guilt and human desires for sensual pleasure - occurs when we do something that is percieved as wrong

Question 26

differences of aq and f on guilt

Answer 26

- aq sees as feelings of being to blame for moral wrongdoing/as a by product of acting against cons whereas f sees as internal conflict between diff aspects of personality - aq sees as a logical feeling as we have reasoned correctly and then still acted against conc whereas f sees guilt as not necesarily logical but psychological (cons is guilt but not objective guilt)

Question 27

similarities between aq and f on the process of moral dec making

Answer 27

- is an internal process - consc can sometimes be in opp to whatever the majority pop view held by soc might be - can be shaped/educated

Question 28

differences between aq and f on the process of moral descision making

Answer 28

- aq sees consc as an ind making rational moral decs whereas f sees moral dec making as unconscious instincts by the superego and id rather than delib thoughts - aq view of consc + moral dec making is rooted in relig beliefs in g as a creator and is theological whereeas f is rooted in his understanding through case studies of the working of the unconscious mind os psych - aq sees cconsc as morally binding as otherwise going against g whereas f believes the consc doesnt relate to any kind of absolute right or wrong but reflects the operation of id e and se - can be ignored

Question 29

similarities of aq and f on the presence or absence of g within the workings of the conscience and super ego

Answer 29

- conscience is not the direct voice of g

Question 30

differences of aq and f on the presence or absences of g within the workings of the conscience and super ego

Answer 30

- aq thinks g and relig bring human wholeness whereas f thinks relig based on idea of g causes neurosis and prevents us from becoming psychologically whole - aq sees wrongdoing in terms of sin and right and wrong in terms of the will of g whereas f doesnt