Different theories on the conscience in A2 philosophy and ethics

1. 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.

2.  Conscience is a God-given ability to reason
 There are two parts to the conscience:
- Synderesis: innate awareness for good and bad. Aim to
avoid evil and do good
- Conscientia: acting out what synderesis gives: “The
application of knowledge of activity”
 Our conscience is sometimes wrong, but we must still follow
it as it is our best guide

3.  Explains the origin of the conscience
 Cannot always do the right thing by following our conscience
as our principles could be wrong.
 Explains evil – our conscience can sometimes be wrong, so
explains why there are bad people in the world.
 But, if the conscience is God-given, why is it fallible?
 His rationalistic approach does not consider revelations from
God.

4.  Saw human nature as hierarchical
and at the top is conscience
 Innate gift from God which
must be followed (ultimate
authority)
as it is not wrong. It sets us apart from animals (as they don’t
have a conscience)
 Conscience creates a balance between these two
principles:
- Self love: self-interest
- Benevolence: concerned with others’ wellbeing
 Conscience is “our natural guide, the guide assigned to us
by the Author of our nature”
Conscience
Principle of
Reflection
Self-love and
Benevolence
Basic human drives (e.g. hunger)

5.  Our conscience cannot be mistaken as it is God-given,
therefore we must listen to it
 Does not explain how we know what our conscience is, and
how we listen to it
 Clear-cut: “follow your conscience as it is the ultimate
authority”
 It doesn’t explain why people do evil if we have an infallible
conscience which is God-given
 But, wouldn’t this just be free will?

6.  Uses intuition (Intuitionism) rather than reason.
 Conscience is innate and a direct order from God. “Voice
of God”.
 It should override other influences as it is always right.
 It does not invent the
truth, but at its best it
detects the truth.

7.  Simple and easy – the conscience is always right, so you can’t
make the wrong decision by following it.
 Some people may use this to their advantage and lie and say
their conscience ‘told them’ to do something wrong.
 It overrides all influences (or should…) so there is no issue of
knowing what to follow
 Does not explain how we know what our conscience is, or how
to use our intuition

8.  Ability/faculty that distinguishes if an act is right/wrong
through the use of feelings (i.e.. guilt at doing a wrong act)
 Id: Primitive basic needs and feelings, libido, selfish desires.
Irrational and emotional.
 Ego: Awareness of not always getting what we want.
Negotiates between the Id and Superego.
 Superego: Last to develop. Stores rules, morals, the
conscience – embedded by authority figures.
 The superego tries to follow absolute laws but the ego must
make a balance between it and the Id.

9.  Explains that the conscience is a balance of psychological
features in the brain.
 Does not explain how to listen to our conscience, other than
guilt indicates a wrong action – although, this doesn’t help as
the guilt often happens after the wrong act, so can’t be used to
determine acts.
 Explains evil, that it is flawed and may not be developed in
some people.
 Can’t always do right, as the ego makes a balance between
the superego (conscience) and the id (needs/wants), so can’t
always follow the superego.
 Easy to follow: if you feel guilty, your conscience is telling you it’s
wrong

10.  Nature: Develops; is not innate or God-given.
 Role: To form a functional society, to determine the manner in
which people act.
 0-2: Learn about the world, differentiate themselves, play by
themselves.
 2-7: Develop language, play in a group, find it hard to
empathise with others.
 8-11: Think logically, understand concepts of punishment,
justice, etc.
 11-15: Reason using abstract concepts, think of hypothetical
and future situations. Conscience develops.

11. Can be appreciated by all: theists can say that God makes the
conscience develop, whereas others can appreciate that it’s a
biological psychological process.
 Other research discredits his theory
 Easy to understand, yet explains the other stages of
development, as well as the conscience.
 Assumes we are all the same in our development
 The intention of the conscience is to form a functional society
 Christians may dislike that theonomous theology isn’t
mentioned in the moral development stages

12.  Authoritarian conscience – a guilty conscience is a result of
displeasing authority. We learn the set of rules that we obey
from authority figures – which are internalised by the
individual.
 Disobedience produces guilt which weakens our power
and makes us more submissive to authority.
 Humanistic conscience judges our success as a human
being, it leads us to realise our full potential. Form personal
integrity and moral honesty.
 Similar to Virtue Ethics, by being enriched and developing
virtues.
 Real Conscience: “reaction of ourselves to ourselves; the
voice of our true selves”.

13.  Aims to develop individuals, like Virtue Ethics
 Individuals can have different Authoritarian consciences: being
raised differently can change what makes us feel guilty – it’s not
the individual’s fault?
 Judges our success as a human being, and realising our full
potential
 But, is this unfair to those brought up around negative authority
figures, i.e. delinquents/ criminals?