Intro - To what extent is conscience a reliable guide for moral decisions making
- Latin ‘with knowledge’
- How a person discerns morality of an action
- 2 main approaches Psychological + theoretical - approach taken influences view on reliability
- To be reliable; constantly moral decisions, not influenced by external source, Universal across all people
- Due to failing 3 categories = not reliable
To what extent is conscience a reliable guide for moral decisions making- 3 paragraph titles
- Constantly moral decisions
- Not influences by external sources
- Universal across all people
1st paragraph title + aquinas
- Constantly moral decisions
- Aquinas 13th Century - Conscience is god-given
- Syneresis “do good, avoid evil” - innate knowledge of right + wrong –> consistently moral decisions
- Nietzsche (nihlist) disagree as right +wrong don’t exist
- Aquinas says can still make immoral decisions if do not reason syneresis correctly
- Vincible + invincible
- Invincible –> erring conscience (apparent good > real good) breakdown communication between syneresis + conscience (cause by lack of prudence)
1st Paragraph what did other scholars say on this
- Constantly moral decisions
- Augustine (400AD) even when follwing conscience we make mistakes
Timothy O’Connel - Conscience has 3 levels, 2nd level using moral reasoning to search out good and he states peopel often disagree - Jean Piaget experiment with cups behind door, even when child didn’t know and opened door they were blamed by >10 (consequences of action determin morality). if conscience changes then cannot be consistent
- Hanna Ardent - ‘banality of evil’ looking at holocaust determines people often fail to think about morality fo actions
- Dawkins ‘the selfish gene’ humans are controlled by drive to survive, not morality
2nd para - Theological views
- Not influenced by external forces
- Aquinas believes conscience is god-give e.g. syneresis –> not influenced
- Opinion also help by fellow scholars e.g. John Henry Newman - conscience as voice with divine origin, represents God’s moral law
- Joesph Butler - Conscience is god-given –> common Moral historical approach
- Modern Theological scholars view conscience as human reasoning based on Gods laws - e.g. Timothy O’Connell - moral reasoning + human experience as how we develop moral values (accounts for mistakes / immoral actions)
2nd para - Psychological views
- Not influenced by external forces
- Psychological approach views conscience as impacted by external sources e.g. authority
- Freud divides conscience into 3; Id (immediate gratification, ego, (how we view the world / interact with world) super-ego (internalised standard of right + wrong)
- Id influences conscience driving away from immoral actions e.g. lust or pleasure principles
- Super-ego - authority figures influences conscience crate standard of right + wrong separate to morality or God (based on culture)
- e.g. Christianity imposes taboos + rules Freud calls it “adolescence stage of human development”
other scholars on 2nd paragraph (not influenced by external sources)
- Marx - Conscience is part of individualism , perpetuated by capitalism to exert control over society
- Erich Fromm - Authoritarian conscience, all people influenced by external authority - disobedience –> guilt makes people more submissive
3rd para - Theological views
-Universal across all people
- Aquinas conscientia - “conscience is application of knowledge to activity” this + syneresis are God-given should make it universal
- However can be wrong due to invincible ignorance
- Augustine - all people aim for what is good
- Conflicting conscience - multiple religions claim different truths, believe different things about ethical issues
- Aquinas account for this through conscience being mislead, (why would God allow people to sin through not fault of own)
- Vincient MacMara accounts for difference in morality as viewing conscience as how we ‘see’ world, not a voice
- Richard Guala sees consceince as living within Christian framework - not universal (non-Christians) unless take Karl Rahners ‘anonymous Christian’ approach
3rd para - what do other scholars say
- universal across all people
- Freud calls conscience ‘moral policeman’ that develops through 5 stages
- Conscience changing is a common psychological approach –> Jean Pigat conscience matures as we grow from Heteronomous stages –> autonomous we become less dependent on others
- Kohlberg conscience moves from doing good because told by authority –> care for others
- Richard Rorty - No universal set of moral rules
