Assess the View That Conscience Need Not Always Be Obeyed

Asses the view that the scruples need not always be obeyed (35 marks) Conscience is the inner conviction that something is secure or wrong. In a religious discussion, it whitethorn be thought of as the voice of God, speaking within the individual(a), and even as a direct revelation from God. John Newman defines the conscience as the voice of God, a principle planted within us, before we have had any fostering, although training and live be necessary for its strength, growth, and due formation that is an internal witness for both the existence and the law of God.Newman shows how the light of conscience, active in any kind heart, finds fulfillment not in subjectivity and in the communion of the Catholic Church. Newmans view was that it is often said that second thoughts are best. So they are in matters of judgment but not in matters of conscience. Aquinas saw the conscience as the natural ability of a rational human being to understand the difference between right and wrong, a nd to apply the most basic moral principles to particular situations.Aquinas thought that thither would be problems with people spare-time activity their own moral sense, which lead him to natural moral law (NML). He thought that everyone should follow NML because they are moral laws found in nature (e. g. brace for procreation). He thought that the conscience was the intellectual part of you because you work out what to do using natural reasoning. Without following NML, people might have malformed judgments from their passions, ignorance and society and therefore different views on right and wrong.Therefore although he says that it is always right to follow ones conscience, he does recognise that people may still get things wrong, through ignorance or making a mistake. Therefore Aquinas would not say that conscience should always be obeyed because a somebody may not be aware of the relevant moral principle. In order for conscience to work, a person needs to have some solid grou nd information about what is considered right and wrong. The idea of conscience is used as a tool for applying already approveed moral principles.Aquinas considers conscience to be the center that individuals use to apply the general moral principle that they hold. Aquinas believed that it is always right to follow your conscience when you apply the right moral principles to each individual situation to the best of your ability. It does not mean that by following you conscience that you ordain always be right, if your principles are wrong then your conscience will lead you astray. Aquinas was everyplaceall saying that the conscience can be wrong if the reasoning through was wrong.In contrast, Copleston makes the important point that for most people the emotions or else than reason provide the starting point for moral choice. Joseph Butler viewed the conscience differently by believing that the conscious was a way of guarding or positive influence over the different aspects of human nature. Butler argued that there were two different aspects to human beings one being the passions and appetites, including the affections people have and also that there are more thoughtful aspects of benevolence towards others and conscience, as wellspring as self-love.Butler argued that these various parts were ordered in hierarchy, that there are situations where the conscience, being ace in the hierarchy, is able to over-rule the promptings of the appetites of affection. For Butler, the moral life was a matter of getting the hierarchy ordered in the right way. In this hierarchy, conscience comes at the top, because it has the superfluous affair of sorting out the conflicting claims of self-love and benevolence and that the balance is crucial for making moral decisions.In some ways, Butlers account of the role of conscience is rather like Platos view that reason should control appetite. His overall view was that a good person is someone who has his or her priorities we ll sorted, with the promptings of conscience ranking highest among them. Newman defines conscience as the voice of God, a principle planted within us, before we have had any training, although training and experience are necessary for its strength, growth, and due formation that is an internal witness of both the existence and the law of God. Newman shows how the light of the conscience, active in every human heart, finds fulfillment not in subjectivity and individualism, but in obedience to the teachings of the Pope in the communication of the Catholic Church. He said that is it often that second thoughts are best. So they are in matters of judgment but not matters of conscience. Freuds two key aspects to his approach were assertion that sexual desire is the prime need drive in all humans, and the importance of the unconscious mind.Freuds theory of the conscience is entirely in conflict with all of the positions of Aquinas, Butler, and Newman. He saw the conscience as part of the unconscious mind, and believed that it arose as a result of bad experience in early life as well as admonition from parents and society. Our human psyche is equated within the ego (our conscious personality) which balances the ID (our desires) and the SUPEREGO (our guilt). To be ruled by your superego would make you overly judgmental, inflexible, and irrational.Freud would argue against allowing the conscience to have control over our decisions about how we act. Freud believed that the conscience was a concept of the mind that sought to make sense of disorder and deal with the conflict that guilt brings. Freud believed that during our early upbringing we accept certain value and beliefs about morality and society, which may at some stage be rejected by our moral reasoning. However, these early formed values and beliefs still continue to influence our morality through the conscience that seeks to deal with the conflict that the early beliefs and later beliefs bring. ?