CONSCIENCE. When your intelligence don’t tell you something ain’t right, your conscience gives you a tap you on the shoulder and says ‘Hold on’. If it.

CONSCIENCECONSCIENCE

When your intelligence don’t tell you something ain’t right, your conscience gives you a tap you on the shoulder and says ‘Hold on’. If it don’t, you’re a snake.— Elvis Presley, American rock 'n' roll icon (1935-1977)

Conscience is God’s 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)

CONSCIENCECONSCIENCEWhen 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?

ConscienceConscienceWhat 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.

TimelineTimelineAugustine of Hippo 334-430Thomas Aquinas 1224–1274Joseph Butler 1692–1752John Henry Newman 1801–1890Sigmund Freud 1856–1939Jean Piaget 1896-1980Erich Fromm 1900–1980Lawrence Kohlberg 1927–1987

Religious viewsReligious views

Biblical teaching

Augustine

Thomas Aquinas

Joseph Butler

John Henry Newman

Secular ViewsSecular Views

Jean Piaget

Erich Fromm

Lawrence Kohlberg

Sigmund Freud

Religious ViewsReligious Views

These views rely on an intuitionist approach – conscience is innate and comes from God

The Bible – ‘the law written on the heart’

Biblical teachingBiblical teaching

It is assumed by some biblical writers and early Christian teachers that our conscience is God-given. This view is put clearly in Paul’s 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)

AugustineAugustineConscience is the voice of God

speaking to us

AquinasAquinas

All people aim for what is good and sin is falling short of God’s ideals, but sometimes even following conscience we will get it wrong.

AquinasAquinasConscience 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.

AquinasAquinas

Does Aquinas’ rationalistic approach consider revelation that comes directly from God?

Aquinas – Reason seeking Aquinas – Reason seeking UnderstandingUnderstanding

Accept general principles

Apply these principles

with the help of conscience

to particular situations

ButlerButlerwrote 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 person’s God-given guide to right conduct and its demands must therefore always be followed.

ButlerButler

Conscience comes from God and must be obeyed

Conscience will harmonise self love and benevolence

ButlerButler 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 GodJoseph Butler – conscience comes from God

conscience

principle of reflection

self-love and benevolence

basic drives

NewmanNewman

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.’

FreudFreudThe 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.

FreudFreudConscience 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.

FreudFreud

The content of our consciences are shaped by our experiences

The superego internalises the disapproval of others and creates the guilty conscience

PiagetPiaget

A child’s moral sense develops and the ability to reason morally depends on cognitive development.

PiagetPiaget

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.

PiagetPiaget

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.

KohlbergKohlberg

Identified stages of moral development which he believed individuals had to follow in sequence.

KohlbergKohlbergPeople 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 lawto 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 Fromm– Authoritarian ConscienceConscience

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 Fromm – Humanistic ConscienceConscienceFromm’s views changed over timeHe 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 conscienceOther views of conscienceVincent 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.

ProblemsProblemsFor 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 God’s command then we would never make mistakes

However, we do make mistakesIf we can’t hear God properly –

whose fault is it?

ProblemsProblemsChristians 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?

ProblemsProblemsMany 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.

ConscienceConscienceConscience 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)

ConscienceConscience

Is it innate or acquired?

Or both?