People and quotes:

1. Paul. Paul argued for a natural law view of conscience…ie we have conscience by nature which imprints the natural law of God on our minds.

“When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, though they have the law, they are a law unto themselves”. (Romans 2:14)

2. Aquinas believed conscience was the power of reason, a faculty for distinguishing between right and wrong, not something innate.

Synderesis right reason, an awareness of the primary principle, that we should “do good and avoid evil”. The synderesis rule. Synderesis is never mistaken, its first principles re necessarily true.

Conscience is “reason making right decisions” (ST I-II, I) ie the practical application of right reason to a specific situation. Experience, instruction, heroes teach us the way.

Nb Aquinas view is optimistic…what about Eichmann acting out of conscience?

3. Joseph Butler (C18th) believed conscience was a moral intuition.
Conscience causes us to focus on the interest of others (not just ourselves)….we don’t need to reason, we just know intuitively.

Conscience is “our natural guide, assigned to us by the Author of nature”.

4. Freud and guilt.
We have desires which need to be curtailed and restrained. As children we learn self-control and boundaries, so creating an ego, with perception of self and reality. The superego learns to understand the disapproval of other people, thus giving us a concept of internal shame.
The guilty conscience develops from learnt shame coming from the disapproval of parents and adults. This is not subject to rational thought.

The immature conscience is dominated by the unconscious and irrational superego and by feelings of guilt. As the conscience matures, we reflect on our guilt feelings and the best way of achieving moral integrity, a sense of right and wrong which makes sense to our own ego identity and beliefs.

5. Piaget and moral behaviour. The Awakening 1974. Children under 10 can only assess consequences of actions. Over 10s can assess intentions as well (ie was it an accident?). Moral sense needs both.