5 UNIT: Understanding the conscience.

Lesson: 5 Date: 11/9/21

LO: The Conscience as a God-given faculty – intuitive, reflective and autonomous.
TASK: Check your knowledge and do the quiz.
CLOSED BOOK – if you do not know the answer we will go through them after the time is up.
1. What is “synderesis”? 6. Whose work was influenced by their escape from the Nazis?
A) The rational part of the human mind. A) Kohlberg
B) The voice of God within us. B) Freud
C) The faculty of sympathy that makes us help others. C) Fromm

2. Which of these refers to pre-conventional state of the conscience: 7. What is the “collective conscience”?
D) A sense of right or wrong is based on Kantian principles of universalizability. D) Right or wrong is based on sanctions and risk of being excluded from society.
E) A sense of right or wrong is based on whether we get punished. E) Right or wrong is based on wanting the best for others.
F) A sense of right or wrong is based on consequentialist ideas. F) Right or wrong is based on upbringing.

3. Which scholar used the Heinz dilemma in their work? 8. Who said that the conscience is “an original revelation of God”?
G) Freud G) Aquinas
H) Piaget H) Butler
I) Kohlberg I) Schleiermacher
J) Aquinas
9. Which Christian scholar argued that the conscience is fallible but must still be
4. According to Freud, what part of the psyche produces feelings of guilt? followed?
K) Ego J) Aquinas
L) Super-Ego K) Butler
M) Id L) Schleiermacher

5. Who said that the conscience is the “inner parent”? 10. Who viewed the conscience as a survival mechanism designed to make
N) Freud humanity grow stronger?
O) Durkheim M) Fromm
P) Fromm N) Durkheim
O) Kohlberg
1. What is “synderesis”? 6. Whose work was influenced by their escape from the Nazis?
A) The rational part of the human mind. A) Kohlberg
B) The voice of God within us. B) Freud
C) The faculty of sympathy that makes us help others. C) Fromm

2. Which of these refers to pre-conventional state of the conscience:
D) A sense of right or wrong is based on Kantian principles of
universalizability.
E) A sense of right or wrong is based on whether we get punished.
F) A sense of right or wrong is based on consequentialist ideas.
7. What is the “authoritarian conscience” according to Fromm?
D) Right or wrong is based on sanctions and risk of being excluded
from society.
E) Right or wrong is based on wanting the best for others.
F) Right or wrong is based on upbringing.

3. Which scholar used the Heinz dilemma in their work? 8. Who said that the conscience is “an original revelation of God”?
G) Freud G) Aquinas
H) Piaget H) Butler
I) Kohlberg I) Schleiermacher
J) Aquinas
9. Which Christian scholar argued that the conscience is fallible but
4. According to Freud, what part of the psyche produces feelings of guilt? must still be followed?
K) Ego J) Aquinas
L) Super-Ego K) Butler
M) Id L) Schleiermacher

5. Who said that the conscience is the “inner parent”? 10. Who viewed the conscience as a survival mechanism designed to
N) Freud make society grow stronger?
O) Durkheim M) Fromm
P) Fromm N) Durkheim
O) Kohlberg
5 UNIT: Understanding the conscience. Lesson: 5 LO: The Conscience as a God-given faculty – intuitive, reflective and autonomous.

Application to Adultery and Lying

TASK: Check your knowledge and do the quiz.

1. How would Schleiermacher, St Paul and Augustine argue that the conscience
allows people to make decisions about committing adultery and telling lies?

2. What are some problems with this view?

5 UNIT: Understanding the conscience. Lesson: 5 LO: The Conscience as a God-given faculty – intuitive, reflective and autonomous.

How does Joseph Butler view the conscience?

TASK: Check your knowledge and do the quiz.

• The conscience is a reflective principle placed within us by God, a natural faculty.

• This means we can think about what we have done wrong in the past and what we will do in
the future.

Prudence: Benevolence:

Love of self/egoism. Love of

2 governing principles of human behaviour
others/altruism.
Necessary for people
to love others. Benevolence is the
ideal but is not
Morality = balance necessarily possible
Not the same as between the 2
selfishness. all the time.
principles.
5 UNIT: Understanding the conscience. Lesson: 5 LO: The Conscience as a God-given faculty – intuitive, reflective and autonomous.

How does Joseph Butler view the conscience?

TASK: Check your knowledge and do the quiz.

• The conscience is an intuitive moral judge.

• We know intuitively (internally, naturally) when we are using our conscience
because we feel ourselves weighing up between our love of self and love of
others.
• It is autonomous, a natural ability given by God.

Self-
governing or
independent

• This means that the conscience must be followed as it is God-given, and we

have a duty to follow God.
5 UNIT: Understanding the conscience. Lesson: 5 LO: The Conscience as a God-given faculty – intuitive, reflective and autonomous.

How does Joseph Fletcher view the conscience?

TASK: Check your knowledge and do the quiz.

Fletcher rejects the following views:

1. The conscience is an innate faculty of humanity.
2. The conscience is guidance by divine entities such as angels and the Holy Spirit.
3. The conscience is the internalised values of society.
4. The conscience is a faculty of reason.
The conscience is somet
hing we
DO not something we ha
ve.
We do our conscience w
hen we are
deciding what actions b
ring about
agape love.
5 UNIT: Understanding the conscience. Lesson: 5 LO: The Conscience as a God-given faculty – intuitive, reflective and autonomous.

Check your learning

TASK: Using the whiteboard answer the questions to check your learning.

1. Butler views the conscience as reflective and autonomous, this means that…
2. Butler argues that the conscience must be followed because…
3. Fletcher on the other hand argues…
4. He would reject Butler’s view because…

Extension – mind map: Problems with

Fletcher’s view of
the conscience
5 UNIT: Understanding the conscience. Lesson: 5 LO: The Conscience as a God-given faculty – intuitive, reflective and autonomous.

How you could of answered

TASK: Check your knowledge and do the quiz.

1. Butler views the conscience as reflective and autonomous, this means that the
conscience allows people to reflect on their past behaviour and what it means
for the present, and that the conscience is a self-governing faculty given to
humans by God. It is designed to balance between the principles of loving
oneself and loving others.
2. Butler argues that the conscience must be followed because it is given by God
and humans have a duty to follow him.
3. Fletcher on the other hand argues that the conscience is a verb – it is something
that we do when looking for the agapeic consequence for our actions.
4. He would reject Butler’s view because the conscience is not a faculty given to
us by God, it is the process of discerning the Rule of Love.
5 UNIT: Understanding the conscience. Lesson: 5 LO: The Conscience as a God-given faculty – intuitive, reflective and autonomous.

How
Explaining does&Joseph
Butler Fletcher Fletcher view the conscience?
in one paragraph
TASK: Check your knowledge and do the quiz.
1. Butler views the conscience as reflective and autonomous, this means that the
conscience allows people to reflect on their past behaviour and what it means
for the present, and that the conscience is a self-governing faculty given to
humans by God. It is designed to balance between the principles of loving
oneself and loving others.
2. Butler argues that the conscience must be followed because it is given by God
and humans have aProblems
duty to follow with
him.
3. Fletcher on the other Fletcher’s
hand argues view
that the conscience is a verb – it is
something that we do when looking for the agapeic consequence for our
actions. of the conscience
4. He would reject Butler’s view because the conscience is not a faculty given to
us by God, it is the process of discerning the Rule of Love.
 5 UNIT: Understanding the conscience. Lesson: 5 LO: The Conscience as a God-given faculty – intuitive, reflective and autonomous.

Evaluating Butler’s view of the conscience.

TASK: Check your knowledge and do the quiz.
Strengths Weaknesses

• Reflects the nature of human compassion,
and the fact that we want to help others –
could be associated with Hume’s “faculty of
sympathy”.
• In the long run, balancing between self-love
and love for others should (logically) lead to
good consequences for humanity.
• If there is a metaphysical “Mind” that is
separate to the body, the conscience could be
a part of it.
• Why do some people do bad things if the
conscience is intuitive?
• Elizabeth Anscombe: Butler assumes that the
conscience will always be good because it is
given by God.
• The conscience as a faculty of any sort is non-
verifiable through empirical methods.
• Nietzsche suggests that Kant and others have
justified the existence of the conscience by
inventing a faculty in humans, that does not
necessarily exist.
• Relies of fideism so implies that atheists have
been give their conscience by God but are not
using it properly.
5 UNIT: Understanding the conscience. Lesson: 5 LO: The Conscience as a God-given faculty – intuitive, reflective and autonomous.

How does Joseph Fletcher view the conscience?

TASK: Check your knowledge and do the quiz.

1. Does Butler have an adequate explanation of the conscience? Explain your view with one
piece of evidence.

2. Higher level answers will discuss what “adequate” means when answering this question.