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Conscience
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Conscience What is conscience? Where does conscience come from?
Is the conscience innate or acquired? What is its function in ethical decision making?
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DOES CHRISTOPHER REEVE HELP US?
‘I think we all have a little voice inside that will guide us. It may be God, I don’t know. But I think that if we shut out all the noise and clutter from our lives and listen to that voice, it will tell us the right thing to do.’ Evaluate his view. How far do you agree?
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Definition ‘ A person’s moral sense of right and wrong, viewed as acting as a guide to one’s behaviour’ (Oxford Dictionary of English) Is this a good definition? How does this definition link to our study of ethics? Why then do you think very few philosophers deal with ‘conscience’?
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Conscience For many people, their idea about the conscience is having an angel on one shoulder ‘urging’ them to do a good moral action and devil on the other shoulder ‘urging’ them to ignore the angel and perform an immoral action Is this a good way to visualise and understand our conscience? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach?
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Conscience Some people claim that their conscience permitted them to be prison guards in concentration camps during WW2. How could they have stood back and watched what was happening or even participated in such atrocities?
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Hopefully, you now have more questions about conscience than you had at the beginning of the lesson
What questions do you now have?
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Homework Using your textbooks, please read about the religious attitudes to conscience. Create 10 bullet points for each philosopher (Augustine, Aquinas, Newman and Butler)
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Religious attitudes to conscience
Augustine Aquinas Butler Newman
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Augustine Summarise Augustines view of conscience. You can use the following words (you can only use the notes you made when doing your homework: voice of God innate idea implants right and wrong can lead to conscience being different to teachings of church
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Augustine
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aquinas
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butler
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newman
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All people aim for what is good and avoid evil
Who SAYS wHAT? All people aim for what is good and avoid evil AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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Conscience is the mind of man making judgements
Who SAYS wHAT? Conscience is the mind of man making judgements AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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‘Toast the conscience before the Pope’
Who SAYS wHAT? ‘Toast the conscience before the Pope’ AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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Who SAYS wHAT? conscience will harmonise self love and benevolence. This may take some sorting out and so moral dilemmas, we may be uncertain AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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Synderesis - right reason
Who SAYS wHAT? Synderesis - right reason AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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Who SAYS wHAT? Can err ‘invincibly’ (through no fault of their own, or ‘vincibly’ - deliberately. AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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Who SAYS wHAT? ‘magisterially exerts itself’
(authoritative and automatic) AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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The conscientia (actual ethical judgements a person makes)
Who SAYS wHAT? The conscientia (actual ethical judgements a person makes) AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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Who SAYS wHAT? ‘There is a principle of reflection in men by which they distinguish between approval and disapproval of their own actions’ AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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Conscience controls human nature
Who SAYS wHAT? Conscience controls human nature AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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The conscience is binding but can be mistaken
Who SAYS wHAT? The conscience is binding but can be mistaken AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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Conscience comes from God
Who SAYS wHAT? Conscience comes from God AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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Who SAYS wHAT? human nature has a hierarchy with conscience at the top. Conscience has supreme authority. AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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Who SAYS wHAT? It is wicked to blind one’s conscience to clear the way for a wrong action. AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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Reason seeking understanding
Who SAYS wHAT? Reason seeking understanding AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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The conscience should always be obeyed because it is the voice of God
Who SAYS wHAT? The conscience should always be obeyed because it is the voice of God AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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It is the law of the mind - implanted by God
Who SAYS wHAT? It is the law of the mind - implanted by God AQUINAS NEWMAN AQUINAS BUTLER
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Evaluation Look at the evaluation sheet, work out which criticisms match which philosopher.
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Writing task Choose one of the Philosophers and write a paragraph explaining and evaluating the views of the philosopher. Peer mark, adding detail to the paragraph using another colour.
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Plenary Order the four different views from most to least convincing.
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Homework Using your textbooks, please read about the religious attitudes to conscience. Create 10 bullet points for each secular thinker (Freud, Fromm, Piaget, Kholberg Dawkins)
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FREUD
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FROMM
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Piaget
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Kholberg
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dawkins
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Developed the idea of the humanistic conscience
Who SAYS wHAT? Developed the idea of the humanistic conscience FREUD PIAGET NEWMAN
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Personality is in three parts, id, ego and super ego
Who SAYS wHAT? Personality is in three parts, id, ego and super ego FREUD PIAGET NEWMAN
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Who SAYS wHAT? suggested that the first stage of moral development was heteronomous morality FREUD PIAGET NEWMAN
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the second stage of moral development was autonomous morality
Who SAYS wHAT? the second stage of moral development was autonomous morality FREUD PIAGET NEWMAN
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Who SAYS wHAT? Was a psychiatrist FREUD PIAGET NEWMAN
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Believed that conscience was associated with guilt
Who SAYS wHAT? Believed that conscience was associated with guilt FREUD PIAGET NEWMAN
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Conscience is a construct of the mind
Who SAYS wHAT? Conscience is a construct of the mind FREUD PIAGET NEWMAN
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Who SAYS wHAT? the super ego internalises the disproval of others and creates a guilty conscience FREUD PIAGET NEWMAN
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Lawrence Kholberg built on his ideas
Who SAYS wHAT? Lawrence Kholberg built on his ideas FREUD PIAGET NEWMAN
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Who SAYS wHAT? He was a psychoanalyst FREUD PIAGET NEWMAN
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Who SAYS wHAT? He was a psychologist FREUD PIAGET NEWMAN
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Developed the idea of the authoritarian conscience
Who SAYS wHAT? Developed the idea of the authoritarian conscience FREUD PIAGET NEWMAN
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Same as last lesson Firstly, complete the criticisms sheet.
Read through the information on Richard Dawkins Use the information on Dawkins to write a paragraph, explaining and evaluating
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Plenary Sort the Philosophers and thinkers into religious and secular
Can we sort them any other way? Innate/Acquired?
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Plenary Sort the Philosophers and thinkers into religious and secular
Can we sort them any other way?
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Homework Read the rest of the chapter
Come to next lesson, ready to argue which of the modern views of conscience is best.
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Lesson 4 Evaluating Conscience
Create an A4 mindmap on the thinker that you believe makes the best modern case for conscience.
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the conscience is the best moral guide
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what are the problems with conscience?
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is conscience innate or acquired?
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theories of conscience
Religious Secular
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theories of conscience
Innate Acquired/Environmental Reason God Given Evolutionary
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Conscience What is conscience? Where does conscience come from?
Is the conscience innate or acquired? What is its function in ethical decision making?
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another ‘A’ Grade essay?
Order the paragraphs of this essay Mark this essay - use the mark scheme What do we need to do to this essay to make it better? Decide on a thesis Evaluate throughout Add discussion markers Write a conclusion
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