Evaluation of the Claim that Conscience is a Realiable Guide in Ethical Decision Making
In order to decide whether or not our consciences can be relied upon, we must first examine what we mean by conscience. In order for conscience to be consistently and absolutely reliable, infallible, it must stem from an infallible source - God. Alternatively, conscience might have a potential of ultimate reliability, if the faculty of conscience was dynamic and capable of solving problems i.e. if it was an innate part of human nature. Conscience could even be totally fallible - an arbitrary by-product of experience and biology.
This idea - propagated by such scientist-thinkers as Sigmund Freud and
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The implication of this is that the law of conscience is not routed in any kind of rational or logical idioms, or any external reality, but rather the fear of castration, or the insecurity which women (supposedly) experience as they have been deprived of the phallus.
For Freud, the conscience, or Super-Ego, was an irrational, undynamic and emotional force, of as much consequence as the Id in matters of gravity. The conscience in this case points towards one's responsibilities to one's parents, not to God or any exterior moral laws.
Freud, in answer to this essay question, would say that the conscience is completely unreliable, unless you simply wish to rely on it as a barometer of social acceptability. If your view of ethics is restricted to what is inoffensive to people at large, and your parents in particular, then yes, the Super-Ego is a reliable agent of ethical decision-making. But if you wish to consult your super-ego on an issue which your parents never ad an opinion on - be it birth control, capital punishment or forgiveness - then you will find your Super-Ego of little use.
Piaget, although often hailed as a pre-eminent child psychologist, and required reading for all trainee teachers, was in fact and epistemologist. He believed that we
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines conscience as, “ a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed” (CCC, 1778). There are other dictionary definitions of conscience, but they do not take Catholic morals into consideration. While conscience can be affected by many deteriorating factors like peer pressure, the Catholic Church provides methods on how a conscience should act. There are many examples of ethical problems people face in their everyday lives, and techniques like the SEER method help them get through those moral dilemmas. There are many things people assume a conscience is and is not. The Catholic
Piaget studied many aspects of moral judgment, but most of his findings fit into a two-stage theory. Children younger than 10 or 11 years think about moral dilemmas one way; older children consider them differently. As we have seen, younger children regard rules as fixed and absolute. They believe that rules are handed down by adults or by God and that one cannot change them. The older child's view is more relativistic. He or she understands that it is permissible to change rules if everyone agrees.
Morality can be shown, and express in different ways. Some argue that a sense of morality has been present since born, while others argue that this sense comes after experiences. In the text, “’The Moral Instinct’ (2008)” Steve Pinker argues that, moral sense has been a science that every individual create in their own in order to focus on ethics, separately of what society has established as the rights and wrongs. Giving numerous experiments that support his claim, Pinker creates a strong essay e that explains morality. Nevertheless, Pinker’s claim can be compared to other ideas. The text “The moral life of babies (2010)” by Paul Bloom extends Pinker’s argument by saying that “humans do have rudimental moral sense from the very start of life.” In the other hand the text, “ Can You Call Nine Year Old a Psycopat (2012)” Jennifer Kahn complicates Pinkers text by giving opposite evidence referring to the low levels of cortisol and below-normal function in the amygdala, provoking a lack of processing fear and social emotions towards situations. In this essay I would be creating a comparison between ideas and how they support or oppose each other’s by their evidence and claims, in order to see if this comparation creates a new perspective in my opinion of Pinker’s argument.
We make decisions for the better or for the worst. Everyday some are bigger than others. They affect our everyday lives more than we think. I remember one specifically I regret making. It was November of my freshman year of high school. It was a cold Friday night. Me and my friends decided it would be cool if we snuck out. So we did and we went and met up with a couple of girls. The whole time my conscience was telling me it was a bad idea but were teenage boys its normal to sneak out. So we did and we didn't get back to my friends house until two in the morning. When I went home the following morning I walked in to see my parents sitting at the kitchen table just waiting for me to come home. They were furious at me. I ended up being grounded
Ethics has developed as people have reflected on the intentions and consequences of their acts. From this reflection on the nature of human behavior, theories of conscience have developed, giving direction to much ethical thinking. Each individual has a different ethical background that is taught to them by his or her parents, teachers, mentors, religious beliefs, his or her own personal beliefs and we as a society are all diverse in our own way. Most of our beliefs and patterns of behavior are established through our observations and experiences of childhood through adulthood. For me personally, my ethics come from what I learned from my parents, my religious background, my experiences, both personal and professional, and my observations of
Through analyzing the science of the human mind and emotion, Sigmund Freud changed the world’s view on the human psyche. Freud influenced the entire concept of psychology with his many books and theories, proving the structure of the mind, the motivations for human actions, and ultimately that everything done has an explanation. His legacy in the field of psychology has completely altered the way society thinks of the mind and behavior. While many theorized that Freud himself was crazy, his insights into the human mind have been the basis for much of psychological theory today. The childhood experiences of Sigmund Freud allowed for his later explanations of the unconscious, the deep motivations within humans, and the acceptance of sexuality.
Newman bases his proof on the existence of God on the human conscience. He put forth that our conscience has two dimensions - a moral sense as well as a sense of duty. Conscience is a reasoned out judgment and also a dictate to take action. A persons' conscience tells them which actions to take and what direction to go in life. Newman presents that the conscience is the voice of God, “of a Master, living, personal, and sovereign.” Newman proposed that people instead of using experience and reason to understand about what is the right course or wrong course of action, they use a feeling of morality. This also brings about guilty feeling and a sense of duty or responsibility. The feeling of morality is the connection to God and can
Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalyst and recognized the importance of unconscious mental activity. Freud’s theories on the inner constructs of the mind are now accepted by most
I believe that conscience is cultural relative phenomenon. The rights of all humans is unvisceral. Our rights as humans depends on the culture we grow up and no moral code can apply to anyone culture. Boss states that is you conscience is well developed, it is the “essence of a moral life” (Boss, 2014, p.74). Conscience does involve feelings, reasoning, and critical thinking, but it doesn’t take into consideration sociopaths or people who might b). mentally incompetent (Boss,2014,p.76). What is wrong or right or good vs evil is up to the person (Boss, 2014, pg75). The frontal cortex in our brain is the center of our moral decision making (Boss,2014,pg75) Conscience is made up of unconscious and unconscious thoughts ( Boss,2014,pg77).
Do you clearly understand what plain conscience really means? Conscience is a term that is used to describe the behavioral character of human beings with respect to self-awareness. It is internally and rationally capacitated as the common lore suggest. Conscience helps people to overcome iniquity via doing what is right and that is what people commonly refer to as norms and values of life. All the values that we might be exposed to during our life time are as an influence of conscience. In human growth and development a child is able grow adapting to the environment but still processing an inner filling that makes it feel happy or uncomfortable. These reflective behaviour result from the conscience which build in the kids so as to develop and
The quote “There is no witness so terrible, no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us” was written by Sophocles. In this he is trying to tell the people that the conscience is a powerful thing that helps you decide whether to do the right or wrong
This sections starts with how decisions can affect ethical behavior. Most people have unconsciously developed a decision-making process in situations such as a workplace or in their personal life. The steps of decision-making are as follows: Developing a problem statement, identifying alternatives, evaluating and choosing alternative, implementing decisions, and evaluating results. If any of those steps does not result as a success, then the decision-making process is repeated until it is successful.
Adolescence is a time of several changes. During adolescence people learn to become more autonomous. They become less reliant on their parents and more on themselves. One way they become more autonomous is cognitively. Many psychologists who study moral development use Piaget’s theory on cognitive development. These studies emphasize the change in reasoning that is used in making moral decisions. Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg did a lot of research on the development of moral reasoning and expanded Piaget’s theory (Steinberg, 2008). He believed that moral development occurs in three levels and within those levels there are two distinct stages.
For a long time, psychologists debated the issue of whether moral judgments could be considered emotional and non-rational processes, such as Freudian internalisation and behaviourist reinforcement, or reasoning and “higher” cognition, such as Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s post-conventional reasoning. Recent studies showed the importance of both emotions and reasoning, particularly the process of automatic emotions, which was shown to be influential.
The intention of this paper is to provide an overview of the psychological theories of Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg. While Piaget 's perspective was psychological, Kholberg 's viewpoint was psychological with emphasis placed on moral development and both theories will be compared and contrasted in this paper. Furthermore, the implications of these theories for counselling will be examined.