The most logical source of the conscience is God. Discuss.’ (40 marks).
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Conscience
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Oxford A Level Religious Studies for OCR
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Basically analysis of Aquinas thinking
‘The most logical source of the conscience is God. Discuss.’ (40 marks).
Conscience is the term people often give to their inner sense of right and wrong, it is
the moral faculty. Thomas Aquinas takes on a theological approach and argues the
conscience was the process of applying the recta ratio, right reason, and the ability to
reason was god-given as a result of human beings created in imago Dei. The
conscience is a God-given ’faculty of reason making moral decisions’. Whereas,
Sigmund Freud conceptualises the conscience psychologically and argues that the
conscience is the form that the ego takes in addressing the superego and id and is
rather a product of psychological factors that influence human beings in a way that
may or may not be healthy. Through critical analysis, it will become clear that the
most logical source of the conscience is God as it is the only plausible explanation
for explaining why we have differing moral views and also provides us with free will.
The most logical source of the conscience is God however God does not dictate what
we do rather he provides us with the ability to develop prudence or phronesis as
Aquinas emphasised. Cardinal Newman took on a theological view of the conscience
and unconvincingly argued that it was the intuitive voice of God, “the voice of the
lawgiver”. Newman thus argues that when we follow our conscience we are
simultaneously following God’s divine law. When we ignore our conscience we
experience guilt and shame as “God is the one to whom we are responsible, before
whom we are ashamed”. Newman’s belief of the conscience as being the innate voice
of God fails as it cannot explain why theists may have differing moral views on issues
such as abortion with some leaning towards a liberal pro-choice approach, and others
a conservative pro-life account. This thus means that the conscience is not the voice
of God or the voice of God is unclear and if the latter is true there is truly very little
purpose in following the conscience at all due to stifling ambiguities. Instead,
Aquinas’ understanding of the conscience as being “an act '' is much more
persuasive because it can explain why we have such differing stances on issues
despite the conscience originating from God. Aquinas argues that through the
application of reason, one can access and develop synderesis, the natural inclination
we have to ‘do good and avoid evil’. Aquinas highlights that ‘synderesis is not a
power but a natural habit’, which allows us to apply moral rules. Due to the differing
levels of developed synderesis, people will apply their reason differently. This
understanding of the conscience is not only compatible with secular understanding
as it suggests there is an element of learning or development, as opposed to being
innate since birth and it can explain why we make different decisions. Conscience
hence develops through our repeated use of right reason, alongside a personal
development but is gifted to us from God.
Conscience must come from God as the alternative, the psychological explanation is
weak due to its lack of reliable evidence. Freud, the father of psychoanalysis,
established hypothetical categories within the human mind as a ‘’psychic
apparatus’’:the ego, the id and the superego. For Freud the conscience comes as a
result of the conflict between the id and the superego and can be explained
psychologically - it is the repository of the internalised moral standards of society,
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