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Conscience - Coggle Diagram
Conscience
Comparing Aquinas and Freud
overview
Aquinas - conscience is linked to reason, is not a product of the unconscious, exists
Freud - conscience isnt linked to reason, is a product of the unconscious mind, doesnt exist and is just a phenomenon, is an umbrella term for many factors
concept of guilt
freud is interested in guilt and seeks to explain it whereas aquinas is not really interested in psychological issues
his focus is on rationality and sees guilt as a byproduct of acting against the conscience
freud sees guilt as not necessarily logical whereas aquinas sees guilt as a logical feeling if we have reasoned correctly and then still acted against our conscience
God within the conscience
aquinas sees our conscience as god given indirectly through reason whereas for freud god is a human intervention to provide comfort surrounding difficulties and death
for aquinas god and religion brings wholeness and by following divine law and reasoning correctly we become better people
where as for freud focusing on religion prevents us from becoming psychologically whole
moral decision making
for aquinas moral decision making is rational and involves decisions about what we belive god requires us to do
where as for freud moral decision making is a reflection of the needs of the id and superego which are unconscious instincts
for freud our moral thinking is leared and caused it is not innate or free
Aquinas - synderesis and conscientia
conscience is not a feeling or an inner voice but is rather the process of reasoning
reasoning and god
our ability to reason is given to us by god as a result of being created in the image of god
it becomes our responsibility to use our god given reason correctly
we do this by developing the intellectual virtue of prudence/phronesis - the ability to make judgements based on the circumstances we find ourselves in
synderesis and conscientia
conscience is the 'mind of man making moral judgements' - two parts; synderesis and conscientia
synderesis - natural inclination that we seek to do good and avoid evil - awareness of what the moral rules are - a habit of reasoning that we develop with practices that we will come to understand and be able to apply the moral rules
conscientia - practical outworking of synderesis - it is the intellectual process of making actual moral judgements and applying them to the situations that we face - it is an act 'a verb not a noun'
Aquinas - vincible and invincible ignorance
vincible - involves a lack of knowledge for which the person is responsible - if a man sleeps with someone other than his wife because he is unaware of the moral rules - he is responsible for this error
invincible - involves a lack of knowledge for which the person is not responsible - if a man knowing that adultery is wrong sleeps with a woman believing her to be his wife then there is no wrongdoing
we are obliged to follow our conscience - it carries authority even on the occasions that it is wrong
Fromm's alternative psychological explanation
partially agrees with freud - believes that each of us has two consciences; authoritarian and humanistic - which one of these is stronger depends on the individual and their personality
authoritarian conscience - begins with a fear of authority - internalised feelings of fear and our inner voice becomes that authority - we fear and obey the authority's rules even when they are absent
humanistic conscience - it is our own inner voice reacting to how well we are functioning in life - it is a reaction of ourselves to our own beaviour - fromm argues that this conscience is a higher and more developed conscience
Freuds psychological view
tripartite personality
ego - conscious self that mediates between the id and superego
id - unconscious self which contains basic desires and drives e.g. sex and death
superego - unconscious set of moral controls and ideas given by authority and often opposed by the id
conscience is superego and can be explained psychologically - formed by society, particularly parents
it is a reaction to all the demands that are placed upon a person that they cannot live up to
guilt occurs when we go against our conscience/superego
psychosexual stages of development
for freud all psychological problems are caused by sexuality specifically earl childhood awareness of libido
a further source of guilt is the oedipus complex - a male child in its presexual development develops a fixation for his mother and percieves the father as an obstacle to the fulfilment of these desires
a child is fearfull and jealous of his father but will eventually identify and admire him
repressing these feelings causes guilt and shame
females will develop the electra complex
Assessing Aquinas' theological approach
SUPPORTING
rational rather than intuitive - requires reasoning rather than 'gut instinct' which is favoured over other views
explains how the conscience can be mistake and that we can make moral mistakes
explains how we can change our mind on moral issues - conscience is developed through education
explains moral disagreement - if god directly speaks through conscience than we would assume he would say the same to all and standards would be agreed on
AGAINST
doesnt fit with our experience of conscience feelings - feels more intuitive and emotional in its promptings - we may rationalise at a later stage but the initial experience is intuitive
does not prioritise divine relation - most christians believe god speaks to them directly
does not take into account the social and environmental factors that inevitably seem to affect our moral views (freud seems to be right in suggesting these are factors)
Assessing Freuds psychological approach
SUPPORTING
Freud helpfully begins with our psychological experience of guilt and attempts to provide an explanation (Aquinas bypasses how we initially experience conscience)
Freud sees his explanation as scientific - he attempts to ground the explanation in empirical facts
supporting theories show conscience as an umbrella term for many factors - Dawkins gives his evolutionary account of traits being passed on through generations
other psychologists such as Piaget link morality and conscience with childhood experience
AGAINST
Freud assumes a natural explanation of the phenomenon of guilt however it is possible guilt could arise from a god given instinct
moral values are largely shared regardless of culture and upbringing - if it was based on individual experience surely there would be more variety
Freuds research although empirical has limited support as ideas such as the oedipus complex were based on a handful of case studies
work on the unconscious cannot be falsified - Popper criticised his work and claimed it not to be science at all
alternative explanation - JH Newman
conscience is an immediate inner voice rather than our own reasoning
it is a key part of our psychology
it is effectively gods voice speaking to us directly
it is authoritative and we ought to obey
we experience guilt and shame when we obey it