St Augustine: Conscience is the innate and infallible voice of God within each person, providing Divine Authority for moral decisions.
Strength: Supported by scripture and later theologians; aligns with Christian beliefs.
Criticisms: Requires belief in God, cannot explain moral disagreement or evil, and may challenge free will.
St Thomas Aquinas: Conscience is the God-given faculty of reason shaped by the sinderesis principle (do good, avoid evil).
Strength: More realistic (conscience is fallible), upholds free will, ties to moral responsibility.
Criticisms: Depends on belief in God; not everyone acts rationally or seeks good.
Joseph Butler: Conscience is a reflective principle placed by God, acting as a guide and governor, balancing prudence (self-love) and benevolence (love for others).
Strength: Emphasizes moral responsibility and accountability, supports free will.
Criticisms: People may lack balance between self-interest and benevolence; moral evil suggests conscience is not universally effective.
Joseph Fletcher: Conscience is not a thing but an act (a verb)—the process of decision-making in situation ethics for the most loving outcome.
Strength: Explains conscience as an action, resolving its lack of physical presence; fits his ethical system; explains moral disagreement.
Criticisms: Depends on belief in a God of love; contradicts traditional Christian views; limited outside situation ethics.
Non-Religious Understandings of Conscience
Sigmund Freud: Conscience is the internalized voice of childhood authority figures, creating guilt when disobeyed (super-ego function).
Strength: Explains guilt’s origins and social influences; not reliant on God.
Criticisms: Reduces conscience to conformity; pessimistic, ignores independent morality.
Erich Fromm: Conscience develops in two forms: authoritarian (fear of disobedience/externally imposed) and humanistic (inner sense of humanity and flourishing).
Strength: Acknowledges social context and possibility of autonomy; not theistic.
Criticisms: Challenges religious accounts; value depends on social norms, which can be flawed.
Lawrence Kohlberg: Conscience is the highest stage of moral development (post-conventional level), reached by few; most remain at conventional (external authority) stage.
Strength: Explains moral diversity; links conscience to moral reasoning and autonomy.
Criticisms: Culturally relative; contradicts religious claims that everyone possesses conscience.
Application to Moral Issues
Telling Lies/Breaking Promises:
Augustine: Always wrong—voice of God forbids it.
Aquinas: Reason judges it wrong—violates social order.
Fletcher: Depends on the most loving choice in the situation.
Freud: Guilt depends on childhood teachings.
Fromm: Wrong if it harms society or violates human flourishing.
Kohlberg: Post-conventional—wrong universally; conventional—wrong if authority forbids.
Adultery:
Augustine/Aquinas: Wrong—contradicts Divine Law and reason.
Fletcher: Generally unloving, but could be justified situationally.
Freud/Fromm: Guilt depends on upbringing/social norms.
Kohlberg: Post-conventional—wrong due to universal harm.
Value of Conscience as a Moral Guide
Valuable for theists when seen as the voice of God, but problematic for others.
Internalized values can unite society but risk promoting conformity, even to immoral norms.
Reason and moral development approaches support autonomy but may not be accessible to all.
Feelings of guilt can guide but also burden individuals unnecessarily.
Key Terms & Definitions
Conscience — Internal sense or guide about right and wrong.
Sinderesis Principle — Aquinas’ idea to do good and avoid evil.
Authoritarian Conscience — Fromm’s term for conscience formed by external authority.
Humanistic Conscience — Fromm’s inner sense of humanity and flourishing.
Agapic Calculus — Fletcher’s process for determining the most loving action.
Super-ego — Freud’s part of the mind that internalizes authority and causes guilt.