Conscience

Revision

Conscience Hierarchy
Conscience
Innate
God given

Environmental
Evolutionary

Aquinas

Dawkins

Fromm
Freud

Butler

Piaget

Newman

Kohlberg

Reason
Aquinas

Conscience Hierarchy

Not on spec

Conscience
Innate
God given

Environmental
Evolutionary

Aquinas

Dawkins

Fromm
Freud

Butler

Piaget

Newman

Kohlberg

Reason
Aquinas

What is Aquinas view on

conscience?
There

are two aspects to Aquinas

understanding of conscience:
Synderesis - an innate source of good and evil and
Conscientia - a judgement derived from our reason

The

two combine to form conscience.

"Man's reasoning is a kind of movement which
begins with the understanding of certain things
that are naturally known as immutable principles
without investigation. It ends in the intellectual
activity by which we make judgements on the
basis of those principles..." (Summa Theologica,
1-1, Q79)

Synderesis and Conscientia

Synderesis - an innate instinct for distinguishing right from
wrong.
Defined as "a natural disposition of the human mind by which
we instinctively understand the first principles of morality".
Aquinas thought people tended towards goodness and away
from evil (the synderesis rule').

Conscientia - the power of reason for working out what was

good and what was evil.
Defined as the "application of knowledge to activity".
This is something closer to moral judgement rather than
instinct.
"Conscience is reason making right decisions and not a voice
giving us commands" (Summa Theologica, I-II, Q19 A 5 &6).

Does Aquinas believe conscience

is reliable?

Conscience can make mistakes and needs to be

trained in wisdom.
At times people do bad things because they make a
mistake in discriminating good from evil.
Aquinas believed that if the conscience has made a
factual mistake, for example, if I don't realise that my
action breaks a particular rule, then my mistaken
conscience is not to blame.
But if I am simply ignorant of the rule (such as not
committing adultery), I am to blame.
Aquinas argues that if a man sleeps with another
man's wife thinking she was his wife, then he is not
morally blameworthy because he acted "in good faith".

What is Butlers view on

Conscience?

Conscience as the ultimate moral decision-maker.

There is a principle of reflection in men by which they distinguish
between approval and disapproval of their own actions ... this
principle in man ... is conscience' (Butler, Fifteen Sermons, 1726:
21).
Humans are influenced by two basic principles,

self-love and
love of others.

Conscience directs us towards acting for the happiness or

interests of others instead of focusing on ourselves.
Like Aquinas, Butler argued that conscience determines and
judges the rightness and wrongness of actions.
Conscience gives instant intuitive judgements about what we
should or should not do.

Does Butler believe

conscience is reliable?

It is, our natural guide, the guide assigned us by the Author of

our nature'.
It must be obeyed: it is our duty to walk in that path, and follow
this guide without looking about to see whether we may not
possibly forsake them with impunity.'
If your conscience instructs you to act in a certain way you have
complete authority to do so without considering alternatives. You
obey the commands of your consciences without reservation.
This is a far more intuitive view of conscience than Aquinas'
account, but it raises the serious moral question: what happens if
our conscience is telling us to do something most people would
accept as morally wrong?
This view may be challenged as it is conceivable that conscience
could be misled or misinformed.
If conscience has absolute authority and should be obeyed
unquestioningly, it could be used to justify any action.

What is Newmans view on

conscience?
Cardinal

John Henry Newman took a more

intuitionist approach than Aquinas. He wrote
that
"Conscience is a law of the mind ... a
messenger of him, who, both in nature and in
grace, speaks to us behind a veil, and teaches
and rules us by his representatives.
Conscience is the aboriginal (ie original or
natural) vicar of Christ." (John Henry Cardinal
Newman, Letter to the Duke of Norfolk).
Newman believed that following conscience
was following divine law.

Does Newman believe

conscience is reliable?
Conscience

is a messenger from God, and it is

God speaking to us.
Newman was a devout Catholic, but said in a
letter I toast the Pope, but I toast conscience
first'.
Catholics are obliged to do what they sincerely
believe to be right even if they are mistaken.
So for Newman, conscience is reliable and
should always be followed, even when
conscience appears to contradict church
doctrine!

What is Dawkins view on

Conscience?

Dawkins believes we have self-promoting genes (the

selfish gene) that are programmed for survival.
Butwe have also evolved an altruistic (concern for
others) gene as part of this survival strategy.
Our ancestors found that co-operation is often more
successful than competition (as reflected eg in some
ape behaviour today).
He calls this a lust to be nice, and says we have the
capacity to transcend our selfish genes.
So conscience is biologically programmed into us.

Does Dawkins believe

conscience is reliable?

The altruistic gene that we might refer to as

conscience is common to all.
It is reliable in the sense that it is not environmental,
so we might speak of it in terms of being absolute,
rather than relative.
But it can also be pointed out that it doesnt stop
people doing terrible things.
Hitler, Mugabe and Hussein all will have had the gene,
but they still committed terrible atrocities. Did
environment supersede their altruistic gene? Or is
there another explanation?

What is Fromms view on

conscience?
Eric Fromm experienced all the evil of Nazism and wrote
his books to reflect on how conscience and freedom can be
subverted even in the most civilised societies.
In order to explain how, for example, Adolf Eichmann can
plead at his trial for mass murder in 1961 that he was only
"following orders", we can invoke Fromm's idea of the
authoritarian conscience.
Authoritarian conscience - conscience is the internalised
voice of the external authority, something close to Freud's
concept of the superego considered above.
This internal voice is often backed up; by fear of
punishment, by admiration or can even because one
idolises an authority figure.

Does Fromms believe

conscience is reliable?
Notice

that the voice of the authoritarian

conscience is obeyed not because it is
good but because it is in authority.
Fromms whole view of authoritarian
conscience is based upon the view that
it can allow people to do evil things.
Fromm would obviously therefore
conclude that authoritarian conscience is
not reliable.

What is Freuds view on

conscience?

Conscience is guilt (emotion).

The human psyche has three components: id, ego and

superego.
The id represents passions and desires.
The ego is created in childhood as we learn to take account
of the world and society.
The super-ego develops as we internalise the disapproval
and approval of others, particularly our parents, who give
us a sense of shame.
Guilty conscience can grow from this, and become
pathological (irrational) eg obsessive compulsive tidying.
The mature conscience is the egos reflection on the best
ways of achieving integrity (wholeness).

Does Freud believe

conscience is reliable?

No, conscience for Freud is an emotion (guilt), not a

knowledge (synderesis) or reason (Conscientia).
It would be naive to expect an emotion to act as a
reliable guide for human behaviour.
Furthermore, conscience is relative and therefore
subject to environmental conditions.
Two people with different backgrounds could have very
different forms of conscience.
Guilt is not a reliable force.
Mature conscience is more reliable guide since it is
guided less by emotion. However it is still shaped by
environment.

What is Piagets view on

conscience?
A childs

moral sense develops and the

ability to reason morally depends on
cognitive development.
Two stages of moral development:
Heteronomous

Autonomous

morality

morality

What is Piagets view on

conscience?
Heteronomous

morality
between the ages of 5 and 10 years
When the conscience is still immature,
rules are not to be broken.
Punishment is expected if a rule is
broken.
The consequences of an action will show
if it is right or wrong.

What is Piagets view on

conscience?
Autonomous
10+

morality

years
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.

Does Piaget believe

conscience is reliable?
Heteronomous

morality No, very

similar to Fromms Authoritarian
Conscience.
Autonomous morality more reliable
but certainly not infallible.
Often criticised for being too simplistic.

What is Kohlbergs view on

conscience?
Identified

stages of moral development

which he believed individuals had to
follow in sequence.
His work develops Piagets two stages
into four stages.

What is Kohlbergs view on

conscience?
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.

Does Kohlberg believe

conscience is reliable?
The

more complex structure is an

improvement upon Piaget and is more
realistic in relation to the when and
how people develop.
Even if everyone were to progress to
the final stage it is still environmental.
However, Kohlberg himself suggests
most fail to move beyond keeping the
law.

Exam Questions
Evaluate

the claim that conscience is the

voice of God. (35) Specimen
Assess the view that conscience need
not always be followed. (35) Jan 2010
Critically assess the claim that
conscience is the voice of reason. (35)
Jan 2011