The Nature of Conscience Revision Notes for AQA A-Level Religious Studies

The Nature of Conscience

Introduction to conscience

Conscience is the internal sense that something is right or wrong. This inner conviction appears in both secular and religious ethical discussions. Conscience differs from rational argument - you don't arrive at a troubled conscience through logical persuasion. Instead, it functions more like an emotion, closely linked to feelings of guilt and shame.

Key characteristics of conscience

Bad conscience and guilt

Conscience most commonly takes the form of a 'bad conscience' about past actions. This occurs when you recognise you did not do the right thing, even if at the time:

It was what you wanted
Everyone else was doing it
You could rationally justify it to yourself or others

A bad conscience produces guilt or shame, even when others say you have no reason to feel guilty.

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The fact that conscience can produce guilt even when we can rationally justify our actions shows that it operates at a deeper level than logical reasoning. This is why someone might feel troubled by an action that seems perfectly defensible to others.

Future-oriented guidance

Conscience also operates when considering future actions. When facing moral uncertainty, you might be advised to 'follow your conscience'. This means:

Not necessarily thinking through all moral arguments
Not simply consulting scripture or law
Following something more intuitive and internal
Acting on your own sense of what is right, even if others disagree

Nature of conscience

Conscience is:

Personal and internal
Intuitive rather than rational
Deeper than established moral principles or social conventions
Not fully explained by ethical arguments alone

Development and variation

The brain is remarkably adaptable, forming habitual patterns of thinking and acting. Each decision creates neural pathways that influence future decisions - we train ourselves. This helps explain why:

Some people have an 'over-developed conscience', feeling guilty about minor infractions
Others have 'no conscience', going against common moral sense without apparent remorse

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The brain's plasticity means that conscience can be shaped and developed through our choices. Every moral decision we make literally rewires our neural pathways, making similar choices easier or harder in the future. This explains why consistent moral practice strengthens our conscience over time.

Historical context

The word 'conscience' comes from Latin conscientia. Until the seventeenth century, it encompassed broader ideas now associated with consciousness and self-consciousness - the fundamental awareness of ourselves as thinking, feeling individuals.

From the seventeenth century onwards, during the Enlightenment, there was increased emphasis on individual moral and social responsibility. A narrower view of conscience emerged, moving away from simple 'obey or be punished' towards more democratic notions where each individual plays a part in deciding what is right and acting upon it.

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The rise of Protestantism encouraged personal reflection on moral issues rather than simply confessing to a priest and accepting forgiveness. This gave added significance to conscience, which had been a feature of Christian thought since St Paul's letter to the Romans.

Key questions about conscience

When examining conscience, we need to consider:

Secular understandings of conscience's nature and development
Distinctively religious understandings of conscience
How conscience is used in making moral decisions
The place of conscience as a moral guide

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Fundamental questions about conscience:

Is it always right to follow conscience?
Can conscience itself be wrong?
If conscience is wrong, how could we be convinced of that?
Which comes first: conscience or moral principles?
Is conscience always personal and individual, or can it be shared within society or religion?

If everyone has their own individually-formed conscience, this would suggest we cannot frame general moral principles, since everyone's conscience would be free to overrule those principles.

Differing ideas about the nature of conscience

Secular and non-religious views

Conscience as behaviour developed through social interaction

Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-87)

Kohlberg, an American psychologist, developed his theory from studying children's reasoning about moral dilemmas.

Kohlberg's six stages of moral development

Kohlberg defined six stages across three levels:

Pre-conventional level:

Stage 1: Punishment and obedience - right and wrong is determined by what we are rewarded for and what we are punished for
Stage 2: Development of good interpersonal relationships

Conventional level:

Obey society's rules and avoid guilt
Many people never progress beyond this stage

Post-conventional level:

Recognition that where needs of individuals and society conflict, individual needs must give way to benefit society as a whole
Final stage: Individualised conscience directing that moral choices must be consistent and universalisable (applicable to everybody)
Going against conscience leads to feelings of guilt, so it will be followed even if it leads to imprisonment
Comparatively few reach this level

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Kohlberg's theory suggests that moral development is progressive - people move through stages in order and cannot skip stages. However, many people never reach the highest stages, remaining at the conventional level where they simply follow society's rules to avoid guilt.

Kohlberg's methodology

Kohlberg used moral dilemmas to test conclusions. His method involved testing the moral reasoning by which individuals reached decisions. In typical Kohlberg dilemmas:

Two individuals' needs conflict
Either acting or not acting will have negative outcomes for one of the parties
The individual must imagine consequences of different courses of action

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The Heinz Dilemma

A woman was near death from cancer. One drug might save her - recently discovered by a druggist in the same town. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist charged ten times what it cost him. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, borrowed money but could only get together half of what it cost. He told the druggist his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. The druggist refused, saying he discovered the drug and was going to make money from it. Heinz became desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.

Responses vary by stage:

Stage 1 (pre-conventional): Heinz should not steal because stealing is wrong and he would be imprisoned
Stage 5 (post-conventional): Everyone has an equal right to treatment, so Heinz should steal the drug
Stage 6: Theft is always wrong (on Kantian lines), so refrain from stealing even though the wife will die

Reactions to Kohlberg's view

One common criticism is that moral reasoning may not guide conscience as much as 'gut-reaction' or intuition. This reflects Hume's view that 'reason should be a slave of the passions'. You decide what is right through intuition, then subsequently justify it rationally or work out how to put your intuition into effect.

Conscience as an aspect of the super-ego

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Freud, an Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis, produced the best-known psychological account of conscience. It derives from his account of the mind, including the unconscious.

Freud's three elements of the mind:

The id:

The unconscious and instinctive part of personality
Operates at the level of basic physical and emotional needs
Includes eros (instinct for love, sexuality and satisfaction) and thanatos (drive for aggression, violence and death)

The ego:

The rational self
Mediates between the desires of the id and what the world lets us have

The super-ego:

Literally 'above I'
The controlling, restraining self
Develops around age 3-5
Controls impulses that can damage society (eros and thanatos)

The super-ego's role in morality:

The super-ego acts as an 'inner parent'. It is literally the place where your parents' moral commands delivered from infancy are stored, together with commands of other authority figures.

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Conscience is an aspect of the operation of the super-ego. The rules and regulations given by authority figures, particularly parents, are internalised so we cannot escape them. Attempting to do so brings about guilt. Conscience is the repository of our parents' commands during childhood.

As Freud explained, the superego continues to observe the ego, give it orders, judge it, and threaten it with punishments, exactly like the parents whose place it has taken. Only in its judging and threatening actions is the superego identified as conscience.

Manifestation of conscience:

The workings of conscience manifest themselves through feelings of guilt - an active conscience tends to be a guilty conscience. According to Freud, conscience can function at both conscious and unconscious levels. At the unconscious level, it manifests by feelings of shame, guilt, anxiety and remorse.

Examining Freud's views:

If conscience is simply an expression of unconscious application of rules given in early childhood, then:

It does not provide an alternative source of moral authority - it's merely an expression of parents' or significant adults' wishes
It cannot be seen as the voice of God or expression of a natural self - it's a left-over expression of childhood training
Logically, we would be expected to grow out of conscience as we get a more balanced, mature view and our rational ego asserts itself
However, for Freud the super-ego remains as an unconscious force shaping adult lives

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God and conscience in Freud's view:

If God figures in conscience, it is only (Freud argues) as another control mechanism - another authority figure alongside parents, other influential adults, and society's expectations. It doesn't matter whether God exists factually. The idea of God, for those who believe, is likely to give the biggest guilt-trip of all to those who break God's rules, particularly those brought up in a religious faith since childhood.

Problem with Freud's view:

Whereas some might see conscience as giving freedom to go against society's rules based on intuitions of right and wrong, Freud's view presents conscience not as an expression of personal or emotional wish to do what is right, but simply as conformity to parental expectations, whether or not parents are still around. Their view is internalised and experienced as conscience.

Conscience as sanctions or social conditioning

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Durkheim, a French sociologist and social psychologist, was one of the main figures in the development of social science.

Durkheim's view of conscience:

Durkheim brings together both God and conscience into a social explanation of human behaviour.

Conscience is social conditioning - the sanctions that the group brings to bear on the individual.

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God is Society:

God does not exist but is a useful idea
God is a projection of society's powers
Belief in God gives individuals a moral obligation to obey society's demands
When projected onto an omnipotent God, society's demands become unconditional
To disobey them is to disobey the will of God

Conscience as loyalty to the group:

Conscience is a perception of loyalty to the group. For example:

Having a guilty conscience about food you eat is your fear of society judging you for being too fat or too thin
To say someone has no conscience is simply to say they are socially maladjusted

Collective conscience:

Durkheim introduced the idea of a collective conscience (or collective consciousness) - the totality of beliefs and sentiments common to average citizens in the same society. Conscience is organic to the social group as a whole.

Within this context:

An act is socially bad simply because society disapproves of it
It is not that an action conflicts with the common conscience because it is criminal
Rather, it is criminal because it conflicts with the common conscience

Evolutionary perspective:

Durkheim's view is reinforced by an evolutionary perspective: conscience is a mechanism whereby the group grows stronger. Conscience is a survival mechanism developed through people adhering to shared moral values.

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Evaluation:

A combined social, evolutionary and psychological explanation of conscience has good explanatory power. Groups improve their survivability by individuals having a conscience that compels them to maintain group loyalty.

However, what about great moral teachers such as Old Testament prophets and Jesus of Nazareth, who stood outside their 'group' to criticise it?

The authoritarian and humanistic conscience

Erich Fromm (1900-80)

Fromm was a psychoanalyst, philosopher, and Marxist. He abandoned religion (having been a rabbi) to become an atheist, believing religion was the source of most disharmony and strife on the planet. Having escaped the Nazi threat by moving to America, he analysed Freud's writings and judged them to contain fundamental inconsistency.

Fromm's two types of conscience:

Authoritarian conscience:

According to Fromm, guilt, shame, conscience and moral responsibility may arise from fear of being rejected by society, simply because society is based on obedience to rules and conformity to norms.

In most social systems:

The supreme virtue is obedience
The supreme sin is disobedience

When people feel guilty, they feel afraid because they think they have been disobedient. They are not really troubled by a moral issue - rather they are troubled because they have disobeyed a command.

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The authoritarian conscience arises from fear of being shunned and excluded from society because of disobedience. It is not the inner voice of our own deepest nature or convictions, but the internalised voice of a disapproving society.

Humanistic conscience:

The humanistic conscience has an intuitive knowledge of:

What is human and inhuman
What makes life flourish and what destroys it

One common response of the humanistic conscience is disobedience where that brings about flourishing.

Fromm believed destructive forces such as the Nazi regime and nuclear weapons require civil disobedience to resist them. The humanistic conscience knows instinctively that both require resistance.

Innate sense shaped by society:

Fromm suggests that even if we have an innate sense of right and wrong experienced as conscience, the actual forms our pangs of conscience take are shaped by our society.

As Fromm explained, the difference between humanistic and authoritarian conscience is not that the latter is moulded by cultural tradition while the former is not. Both are similar in this respect to our capacities for speech and thought, which, though intrinsic human potentialities, develop only in a social and cultural context.

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Evaluation:

Our existing religious, philosophical and social systems have given us an intuitive knowledge of the difference between the two forms of conscience. To reject the authoritarian form and embrace the humanistic form is to free ourselves from fear of unjust and violent authority and to realise instead our full potential as people.

Religious views of conscience

Conscience as the innate voice of God

Augustine (354-430) and others:

For Augustine and others, conscience is innate - put into human minds by God, so it amounts to an innate knowledge of God's moral laws. This follows St Paul's arguments in Romans 2:15, where he describes it as 'a witness to the requirements of the law'.

Augustine goes beyond Paul and appears to have seen conscience literally as the voice of God. In his work On the Sermon on the Mount, Book 2, Chapter 9, verse 32, he says:

For when will they be able to understand that there is no soul, however wicked...in whose conscience God does not speak?

Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834):

Schleiermacher, a Prussian/German theologian and philosopher, is seen as an early leader of liberal Christianity following rationalist critiques of the Enlightenment period. Despite his achievements as a theologian, he was more widely known as a brilliant and charismatic preacher.

Schleiermacher wrote that conscience expresses the fact that all modes of activity issuing from our God-consciousness confront us as moral demands. Any deviation of our conduct from them is apprehended as a hindrance to life, and therefore as sin. Conscience is traced to divine causality, and as the voice of God within, is held to be an original revelation of God.

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Here conscience is a source of direct revelation from God. To go against it is sin - not because it is shown to go against established moral principles, but because doing so would be a hindrance to a Christian way of life. Conscience, for Schleiermacher, has become part of what God does, guiding people from within. As a direct revelation, it takes priority over all else.

Problems with the 'voice of God' view:

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The amount of evil in the world seems to suggest either that God is selective in choosing who to talk to, or many people are remarkably good at ignoring the voice of God
Being morally good requires making free moral decisions. Decisions that have been given to us cannot be free
Throughout Christian history, Christians have disagreed about moral principles, and all parties have appealed to the God-given conscience. How is it that they have been given different answers?

Conscience as the God-given faculty of reason

Thomas Aquinas (1225-74):

This view is expressed through Aquinas' teaching on Natural Moral Law and is highly influential within Christianity.

The synderesis rule:

Aquinas begins with what he calls the synderesis rule: all human beings seek to do good and avoid evil. They have a natural orientation towards the good. Therefore, 'Good should be done and pursued and evil should be avoided' is a principle that must govern all human reasoning.

Synderesis is in the rational part of human agents. It is a natural disposition of the human mind by which we apprehend without inquiry the basic principles of behaviour. Once the basic principles are apprehended and become part of synderesis, conscience (conscientia), also in the rational part, applies these first principles to particular situations.

What is innate:

Aquinas argues that what is innate for humans is not the voice of God telling them what to do but the God-given faculty of reason.

Practical reason, reflecting on human nature, arrives at and understands the primary precepts of Natural Moral Law
Conscience then applies these through secondary precepts to particular situations
Conscience becomes 'activated' fully by realising that what the individual is about to do (or has already done) is good or evil, right or wrong

Fallibility of conscience:

The conscience is fallible - it can be mistaken. There are two reasons why it may make a wrong decision:

Ignorance of the moral law: If conscience is ignorant of the moral law that should be applied to the situation, Aquinas argues the person is guilty of sin because they should have known the law
Ignorance of the facts: If conscience is not informed about the facts of the case, it can go wrong. For example, if someone sees a pile of newspapers and assumes they are free, the conscience will allow her to take one. If those papers were for sale and therefore not actually free, then the conscience has allowed her to steal them, and the conscience has made a mistake. In this case, Aquinas would argue the person is not responsible for such a mistake, so the 'theft' is not a sin

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Following conscience:

The conscience should always be followed. Where one does an act that is really in accordance with one's conscience, even if the conscience is in error and the act leads to terrible misdeeds, what the conscience dictates is true to the individual concerned, and truth must be followed. Truth comes from God, so to go against what you think your conscience is telling you to do is to go against God.

Evaluation of Aquinas:

Strengths:

Aquinas is realistic - conscience is not infallible and can go astray by following apparent goods rather than real goods
His emphasis on reason is good, since reason allows us to make freely chosen moral decisions, which is the essence of being a moral being

Weaknesses:

Aquinas seems to ignore that large numbers of people act irrationally, not just because they are blinded by their own desires, but also because their reasoning powers are limited
Aquinas thinks we are all aware of the synderesis rule that 'good is to be done and evil is to be avoided', but if we look at the state of the world today, many people appear to follow the rule of self-interest

Conscience as a God-given faculty - intuitive, reflective and autonomous

Joseph Butler (1692-1752):

Butler was an English theologian and philosopher, and also a Bishop in the Church of England. He is seen as a 'defender of the faith', particularly in his arguments against deism.

Butler's view:

For Butler, conscience is in human nature. It is a reflective principle placed within us by God as a natural guide and 'proper governor', so it is our duty to follow it.

By a 'reflective principle', Butler means we are able to reflect morally on what we have done in the past and what we are about to do in the future. All humans, therefore, have a reflective sense of right and wrong.

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Butler explained that there is a principle of reflection in humans by which they distinguish between, approve and disapprove their own actions. The mind can take a view of what passes within itself and its various propensions, affections, and actions. This principle, by which we approve or disapprove our heart, temper, and actions, is conscience. This faculty tends to restrain people from doing mischief to each other and leads them to do good.

Two governing principles:

Butler's analysis is based on two governing principles of human behaviour:

Prudence: Our natural love of self (egoism)
Benevolence: Our natural love of others (altruism)

Prudence is as necessary to the balanced self as benevolence. It is unrealistic to believe people will behave benevolently all the time without considering their own desires and needs. Love of self is absolutely necessary for people to be able to love others, and is not the same as selfishness.

What is required for individuals to function morally and effectively is a balance between prudence and benevolence. What is required for society as a whole to function morally is the same balance.

Conscience as judge:

Conscience is that part of the hierarchy of the self which judges between prudence and benevolence. In other words, conscience is a natural faculty we have for getting the conflicting elements of our lives in order.

How conscience works:

Intuitively: We know intuitively when we are planning or have made the right decision, because we can feel the balance between self-love and love of others.

Autonomously: Conscience is an autonomous judge. There is no sense of approval or disapproval, reward or punishment for acting morally. The conscience is motivated solely by its internal criteria of what is right and what is wrong. It is a natural ability given to human beings, not the voice of God.

Butler stated that it is by this faculty, natural to humans, that we are moral agents, that we are a law to ourselves. This faculty is not merely a principle in the heart which is to have some influence along with others, but is supreme over all others and bears its own authority of being so.

Must be followed:

Butler argues that since this is a God-given faculty, it must be followed, because 'it therefore belongs to our condition of being; it is our duty to walk in that path, and follow this guide'.

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Conscience can be put to sleep, but only by avoiding reflection through self-deceit.

Evaluation of Butler:

How it works: When a person acts in a morally appropriate way according to Butler's theory, it means the conscience sorts out the balance between self-love and benevolence towards others, and controls the appetites and affections accordingly. The conscience is able to overcome an instinctive concern for self and enable people to consider the welfare of others. One driving force behind such concern is the instinctive compassion we have for those in trouble.

Butler's view is that a good person is someone who has priorities correctly sorted. Moral dilemmas happen when there is conflict between our emotions, desires, and moral principles we subscribe to. When we are conflicted, our conscience is troubled. Therefore, following conscience is a good way of ensuring we have got the balance right.

Strengths: Butler gave an intuitive awareness of right and wrong and of the fact that God created human beings in such a way that their flourishing would come from obeying conscience, which God provided for their guidance.

Problems:

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Natural Law suggests everyone should seek to fulfil their nature, which will involve an element of self-love to ensure basic needs are met. But if self-love is to be balanced by love of others, might that not lead us to take moral decisions that cause us harm in the long run and fail to enable us to fulfil our own potential? Butler's answer is that following conscience will be to our long-term benefit, so in the long run conscience will not run counter to natural self-love, since it will serve one's own good
What about those who do terrible things in the name of conscience? If conscience is to trump both reason and appetite, what do we do when reason suggests conscience - either our own or someone else's - is plainly wrong? Elizabeth Anscombe pointed out that Butler assumes conscience, having been given by God to direct the self, will always be good. He does not appear to consider the possibility that it may be distorted or evil
Both Aquinas and Butler describe conscience as a faculty, but exactly what is a 'faculty' of conscience supposed to be, and how do we observe it in the human mind? Nietzsche mocked Kant for 'discovering a moral faculty' in humans, implying this was not so much discovering as inventing. If we have to explain conscience by claiming it exists in some undetectable 'faculty' of the mind, is this just another word for pure invention?

Conscience as agape-love making decisions situationally

Joseph Fletcher (1905-91):

Fletcher comments that there are four theories about conscience:

That it is an innate (built-in) faculty
That it is guidance by the Holy Spirit, or by an angel or by some other entity
That it is the internalised values of society
That conscience is reason making moral judgements (Aquinas)

Fletcher's distinctive view:

Fletcher rejects all of these and offers a very distinctive understanding. For him, conscience is something we DO, not something we have. He writes:

There is no conscience, 'conscience' is merely a word for our attempts to make decisions creatively, constructively, fittingly.

According to Fletcher:

Conscience is not like the Roman Catholic confessional
It is not a 'review officer' judging what you have done
It is prospective, not retrospective
It is choosing what agape-love demands in the present situation
This calculation is the conscience in situation ethics
Conscience is not a noun (something we have) but a verb (something we do)

In a situation:

Conscience is your active decision 'there and then' - in that specific situation.

Remember!

bookmarkSummary

Key Points to Remember:

Definition: Conscience is the inner conviction that something is right or wrong, linked to feelings of guilt and shame
Key characteristics: Conscience is personal, internal, intuitive, and goes deeper than established moral principles or social conventions
Secular views include:
- Kohlberg: Conscience develops through stages of moral reasoning
- Freud: Conscience is an aspect of the super-ego, the repository of parental commands
- Durkheim: Conscience is social conditioning and loyalty to the group
- Fromm: Distinction between authoritarian conscience (fear of disobedience) and humanistic conscience (intuitive knowledge of what makes life flourish)
Religious views include:
- Augustine/Schleiermacher: Conscience is the innate voice of God
- Aquinas: Conscience is the God-given faculty of reason applying the synderesis rule and primary precepts to particular situations
- Butler: Conscience is a reflective principle that judges between prudence (self-love) and benevolence (love of others)
- Fletcher: Conscience is not something we have but something we do - deciding what agape-love demands in a specific situation
Key debates: Is conscience always right? Should it always be followed? Is it personal or can it be shared? Can conscience be mistaken?

The Nature of Conscience (AQA A-Level Religious Studies): Revision Notes