1. ‘A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory’ Mark Twain

2. Oxford dictionary definition
“a moral sense of right and wrong, especially as felt by a person and affecting behaviour or an inner feeling as to the goodness or otherwise of one’s behaviour”

3. The origins of the conscience
The origins and role of the conscience is unknown and is something that divides people as it has been used to justify some terrible acts
People have different interpretations of what is morally right and wrong and in many cases they justify their actions and motivations in this idea of the conscience.
The word conscience comes from the Latin conscientia which until the 17th century encompassed ideas of what we now think of as consciousness and self- consciousness.
During the Enlightenment era there was an increased emphasis on individual moral and social responsibility so a narrower view of conscience emerged – emphasis on the individual being morally independent gave added significance to the conscience.

4. Need to know:
Secular understandings of the nature of conscience, including its natural development
Religious understandings of conscience
Use of conscience in moral decision-making
Assess the place of the conscience as a moral guide

5. Conscience as a behaviour developed through social interaction
Lawrence Kohlberg ( )
Three levels of moral development – pre-conventional (punishment and obedience); conventional (development of good inter-personal relationships and decision to obey rules in society) and post- conventional: individualised conscience, which directs moral choices that must be consistent and universalisable. To go against the conscience leads to feelings of guilt so it will be followed even if it leads to imprisonment.
Reached and tested his conclusions by the use of moral dilemmas.

6. Freud (1856-1939) Conscience as an aspect of the super-ego
Conscience as a psychological phenomenon
Mind is made up of three element – the id, the ego and the super-ego
Super-ego is the controlling, restraining self. It develops around the age of 3-5 and controls impulses that can be damaging to society (e.g. eros and thanatos – instinct for sexual gratification and aggression/violence). Conscience is an aspect of the super-ego. It is the repository of our parents’ commands to us during childhood, and can function at both the conscious and unconscious level.
It is NOT a source of moral authority as it is no more than an expression of the wishes of one’s parents/other significant adults.
If God does figure in the conscience it is only as another control mechanism alongside parents etc.

7. Conscience as sanctions/social conditioning
Emile Durkheim ( )
Conscience is social conditioning – the sanctions that the group beings to bear on the individual.
God does not exist but is a useful idea – belief in God gives people a moral obligation to obey society’s demands
Conscience is a perception of loyalty to the group.
Collective conscience – totality of beliefs common to the average citizens in the same society.
Conscience is a survival mechanism developed through people adhering to shared moral values.

8. Religious perspectives on the conscience.
In the New Testament, St Paul mentions the conscience many times. He describes it as an awareness of what is good and bad and observes that it can be weak and mistaken. 10 For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. (1 Corinthians 8:10-12)

9. Religious perspectives on the conscience.
Christian writers in the first few centuries developed explanations of conscience and its role in moral decision-making. St Jerome saw conscience as the power to distinguish good from evil.
The conscience is essentially ‘… the spark of conscience … with which we discern that we sin’.

10. Religious perspectives on the conscience.
St Augustine of Hippo (AD ) considered the conscience to be a tool for observing the law of God within human hearts: God gives us conscience to determine his law, which is laid down. St Augustine identifies the conscience as the voice of God speaking to which we must seek within ourselves. This intuitive activity reveals the most God-like behaviour, so bringing us into close unity with God.
Men see the moral rules written in the book of light which is called Truth from which all laws are copied.

11. Schleiermacher ( )
Conscience is a source of direct revelation from God, and to go against it is sin because it is a hindrance to a Christian way of life.
A part of what God does, guiding people from within. As direct revelation, it takes priority over all else.

12. Aquinas and the conscience
Synderesis – Aquinas’ idea of what he termed as repeated use of right reason by which a person acquires knowledge of basic moral principles and understands that it is important to do good and avoid evil.
Conscientia – Aquinas called this the actual ethical judgement or decision a person made.

13. Aquinas and the conscience
‘Do good and avoid evil’ – Synderesis Rule
In all situations there are subconscious actions to do good, however due to faulty reasoning or weaknesses of will, some perform bad actions thinking they are good, and therefore commit sinful acts.
Followed an apparent good, rather than a real good – therefore their conscience was mistaken

14. Aquinas and the conscience
Aquinas believe that we had an innate sense to seek out the good and avoid evil. Aquinas believed that sin was falling short of God’s ideals and no one would willingly do so. When people think they are acting in a good way but are actually committing a bad act this was because they were not using their ability to reason properly.

15. Aquinas and the conscience
This notion of faulty reasoning is how Aquinas explains when people do wrong, bad or sinful acts.
Example: A man slept with another man’s wife and claimed that this doing was based on faulty reasoning and therefore evil.
However if the man did it because he believed that she was his own wife and that she wanted him, then he is free from any fault.

16. Aquinas and the conscience
The Synderesis enables us to develop the knowledge of some moral principles and guides us towards the things that are good and away from those that are bad. Sin is falling short of God’s ideas, seeking what people think is good and is actually bad because these people are not using their powers of reason properly.
The Conscientia is the actual choice to follow an action based upon the principles and right reasoning of the Synderesis.
Both parts enable us to deliberate between good and evil and the use ‘right reason’ to make the moral decision that is morally correct.

17. Cardinal John Newman
He agreed with Aquinas that the conscience is the ability to appreciate and apply moral principles, however his approach was more intuitive like Butler than rational like Aquinas.
When someone is following their conscience they are to an extent following a divine law given by God.

18. Cardinal John Newman
When our conscience speaks to us, Newman believes that it is God’s voice giving us moral direction and that it is more than just a sense of reason.
He said that conscience does not create truth, but it does detect truth that does already exist. It is the responsibility of a person to intuitively decide what truth God is guiding them towards.

19. Cardinal John Newman
For Newman following conscience was following divine law and one that must be followed at all times.
“I toast the Pope, but I toast the conscience first”.
Roman Catholic teaching on the conscience reflects both Aquinas and Butler and states that it is the law that speaks to the human heart, a law written by God.
The guilt and shame that they feel when they have made an incorrect choice by ignoring the conscience is the consequence of not obeying the voice of God.

20. Authoritarian and humanistic conscience – Eric Fromm (1900-1980)
Society is based on obedience to rules and conformity to norms, so when most people feel guilty they feel afraid because they think they have been disobedient - they are troubled because they have disobeyed a command NOT because they are troubled by a moral issue. They have an authoritarian conscience.
The humanistic conscience is the aspect of the conscience that has an intuitive knowledge of what is human and inhuman, of what makes life flourish and what destroys it.
Even if we do have an innate sense of right and wrong, experienced as conscience, the actual forms that our pangs of conscience take are shaped by our society.

21. Fromm and the good authoritarian conscience
A good authoritarian conscience provides a sense of security and well-being, as it provides a structure that we can work within to ensure that both society and we are moral.
What happens when authority figures are not good to follow?

22. Fromm and the negative authoritarian conscience
A negative authoritarian conscience can be seen from Fromm’s own experiences in Nazi Germany. The German people would feel guilt if they disobeyed their government and this weakened their power and made them submissive to the demands of the Nazi party.

23. Fromm and the humanistic conscience
This approach to conscience is very different from the ideas of the authoritarian conscience as it seeks to understand humanity and morality from a much more positive and hopeful angle.
It is sometimes referred to by Fromm as ‘the real conscience’ and is ‘a reaction of ourselves to ourselves; the voice of our true selves’ that guides us to achieve our potential.

24. Joseph Butler ( )
Conscience is in human nature – a reflective principle placed within us by God. Human behaviour is governed by prudence and benevolence – conscience is that part of the hierarchy of the self which judges between prudence and benevolence. The conscience works intuitively and is autonomous.
Since it is a God-given faculty, it must be followed.

25. Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991) Remember Situation Ethics!
Four theories about conscience –
It is innate
Guidance by Holy Spirit/an angel/another entity
Internalised values of society
conscience is reason making moral judgements (Aquinas)
He rejects all of these and argues that conscience is something we DO, not something we have – it is choosing what agape love demands in the present situation.

26. Role of conscience - lying
How the conscience is used depends on what the conscience is thought to be.
Reason as conscience (Aquinas): lying/breaking promises is not rational because it conflicts with the synderesis rule to seek good and avoid evil; violates ordered society precept; you could use evasive truth
Sociological view: lying is socially destructive; Fromm’s authoritarian conscience – the individual might not break a promise for fear of society's disapproval. Humanistic conscience – lying would violate the ethical norms that society needs in order for life to be fruitful.
Freud’s psychological conscience: guilt/anxiety/remorse comes from the subconscious mind; lying is common in modern society – the super-ego remains quiet as parents themselves may have seen lying as acceptable; little or no sense of the conscience treating lying as a moral issue.

27. Role of conscience – adultery
How the conscience is used depends on what the conscience is thought to be.
Reason as conscience: reason dictates adultery is wrong, although the conscience is not infallible so makes mistakes. If a man commits adultery through mistaken reason, his will is excused from being evil
Conscience as agape: conscience can permit adultery in specific situations; since marriage is a contract in which vows are usually explained, the case of ‘sacrificial adultery’ is relevant to breaking promises (SEE NEXT SLIDE)
Conscience as social conditioning: society might disapprove of adultery; Durkheim – whether or not adultery is wrong depends on society’s perception of it. Used to be seen as a sin against God, now may be a reason for husband and wife to terminate their marriage – so morality is more about keeping or breaking a contract.
Super-ego: which drive is more is more deeply rooted in an individual’s psychology – preference for civilisation or for sexual gratification, and this depends on a huge number of influences. Adultery is not morally wrong in itself.

28. Fletcher's example - Sacrificial Adultery (Mrs Bergmeir)
During the Second World War, a married German woman with three children was captured by a Soviet patrol and taken to a prisoner-of-war camp in the Ukraine.
Once the war ended, she learned that her family were trying to stay together and find her. According to the rules, she could only be released from the camp if she was pregnant. After considering her options, she asked a Volga German camp guard to impregnate her. She was sent back to Germany and her family welcomed her, even when she told them how she had done it. They loved the child because of what he had done for them. After the christening, they discussed the morality of the situation with their pastor.

29. The value of conscience
Voice of God – may not be valuable if there is no way of knowing if he ‘voice’ you are hearing is genuinely the voice of God or there are conflicting messages
Internalised values of society – conscience naturally unites society as it enforces shared values, but if one society sees the values of another as bad, this will be divisive.
Individualised conscience (Kohlberg) – moral decisions should be consistent and universalisable, but how many people are capable of this level of rationality?
Reason – conscience is not infallible as it is influenced by passion and social conditioning; we need to be able to judge what reason/conscience is telling us by some higher standard.
How useful is guilt? May motivate us to change out behaviour but we may be influenced to feel guilty about something that we have no control over/should not feel guilt for.
Can conscience guide us? Determinists – we are not free to choose how to behave or be influenced by others.
Subjectivity of conscience

30. Problem of definition
For most people, conscience involves one or even all of these factors, but no argument can show that any one definition is right:
Reason (moral views should not be irrational)
Social value
Ability to judge and criticise society over its moral norms
Relation to religious values (many people are religious)
Alternative source of values where religion is rejected
Recognition of the nature of human psychology and its instincts

31. Essay Questions
Explain religious views about the conscience (10 marks)
The conscience is a reliable source for making moral decisions. Discuss (15 marks)
A. Explain the secular approaches to the conscience. (10 marks)
B ‘The conscience cannot be relied upon to make decisions about issues such as adultery or lying.’ Evaluate this contention (15 marks)