In-depth and critical A01 + A02 A* notes and model paragraph structures for the Conscience topic, for the Religion and Ethics unit for OCR Religious Studies.
CONSCIENCE
What is the Conscience?
Generally our ability to rationally discern between good or bad.
It is relative, as many people have different interpretations of what
is morally right or wrong (MLK’s speech on civil disobedience)
St Jerome: “the spark of conscience” was the power to distinguish
between good and evil
Innate Vs Acquired Conscience
An innate conscience is the internal compass of right and wrong we
are born with, but it needs to be developed
Acquired conscience is based off our environment (brings the Nature
vs Nurture debate forward)
Both: we have the innate desire to do good and avoid bad, but we
learn the particular rules and criteria for such by living within a
society that has laws
It could depend on the accessibility to an intellectual processing of
our conscience; not everyone has the same depth of self-awareness
Aquinas’ Theological Views on the Conscience
For Aquinas, conscience is very much the product of reason. God created
us with the ability to reason and we have the awareness of moral law
(synderesis) within us. We then have the responsibility to develop this and
use out Conscientia to apply and make moral judgements.
Ratio
Aquinas did not believe that the conscience is a special part of our
brain, rather a thing to understand through use of reason
Aquinas argues that all humans are born with ratio placed within all
of us, as result of being made in God’s image. Similar to reason but
refers to how humans are unique in having the God given ability to
consider all information before making a judgement
God may not be communicating with us as Newman posits but is
providing us with a powerful tool for moral decision-making.
The feeling of wrong or right we hold is linked to understanding
some level of divine insight. We can move from knowledge of this
world to knowledge of the other world.
Therefore it justifies civil disobedience and supports the view of
Jesus as a social teacher
Zigmunt Bauman supports Aquinas’ view that morality “may
manifest itself in subordination towards socially upheld principles
and in an action openly defying social solidarity and consensus”-
Moral instinct is not what you just see in front of you
, Synderesis
Do good and avoid evil- basic principle that requires habit, as people
can still be tempted. Aquinas held an optimistic view on human
morality
Conscientia
The process of moral action in practice; applying our knowledge to
the unique processes in front of us.
Ratio informs synderesis and results in acting upon your conscience
to do the right thing
Newman’s theological view on Conscience
Newman writes that the conscience is the voice of God; one should
not surrender moral responsibility to some authority over this
conscience
(An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent) He argues we have an
Illative Sense, or the spontaneous faculty to reason
When we give our assent to something, we are acting with
something beyond what we can prove. When we feel guilt or
responsibility that is a feeling coming from the Divine
We can only know things through the Illative Sense, not empirically.
God is the source of all knowledge.
The biggest opposition to this is that if we all have God-given
conscience, why are our morals so relative?
Vincible and Invincible Ignorance
Aquinas is pro-humanity and believes that bad actions arise from
ignorance rather than will
Vincible: the lack of knowledge that people should be responsible
for—refusing to vaccinate even though they know it will stop
infection rates from rising
Invincible: lack of knowledge for which one is not responsible---
accidently writing someone’s name wrong on a form just through
hearing its pronunciation
Freud’s Psychological Views on Conscience
For Freud, conscience is not rational. It is the product of our unconscious
mind. It is the internalized voice of our parents and society that is in the
superego, and it attempts to restrain the inappropriate desires of the id.
The inner struggle is subconscious and hidden from us.
Conscience is not rational decision-making; it is a product of
psychological factors that influence human beings that could be
healthy or not, like guilt and responsibility
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