Should the conscience always be obeyed?
Asses the view that the conscience should always be obeyed. (35 marks)
Conscience is a moral sense of right and wrong, especially felt by a person which will affect their behaviour due to an inner feeling of the ‘correct’ approach to take in a given situation. The majority of people tend to agree with the belief that there is such thing as conscience. In this essay I will be assessing whether the conscience should always be obeyed. Philosophers have made theories giving reasons why we should or should not always follow our conscience. They are divided into groups, religious and secular. Religious philosophers are Aquinas, Butler and Newman. Fromm, Freud and Piaget take on a secular approach.
Christians who believe in Joseph Butler’s philosophy would always obey their conscience because they see it as bringing true happiness about. Butler says it is a ‘gift given by God’. The fact that he has given it to us must mean it is pure and is correct and happiness from only moral things can only come about by using the conscience (so this will always exclude actions such as rape for pleasure). Therefore following it would be the correct moral thing to do. Butler says us as humans are driven by two tendencies self-love and benlovance. On top of these tendencies is where conscience is positioned. Therefore whatever action the conscience brings us to, using Butler’s theory it will bring you towards a loving action either for others or towards yourself. Either way happiness will be brought in some form by following the conscience; by the positive consequences of the action or even just knowing that you have followed God. This will make the world a better happier and easier place to live in because we would know exactly what God wants us to do minimising dilemmas.
Though it can be argued that people following their conscience in the past has not brought happiness, but the opposite. The actions that some people make can sometimes be seen to have no traces to love as the
Conscience is a moral sense of right and wrong, especially felt by a person which will affect their behaviour due to an inner feeling of the ‘correct’ approach to take in a given situation. The majority of people tend to agree with the belief that there is such thing as conscience. In this essay I will be assessing whether the conscience should always be obeyed. Philosophers have made theories giving reasons why we should or should not always follow our conscience. They are divided into groups, religious and secular. Religious philosophers are Aquinas, Butler and Newman. Fromm, Freud and Piaget take on a secular approach.
Christians who believe in Joseph Butler’s philosophy would always obey their conscience because they see it as bringing true happiness about. Butler says it is a ‘gift given by God’. The fact that he has given it to us must mean it is pure and is correct and happiness from only moral things can only come about by using the conscience (so this will always exclude actions such as rape for pleasure). Therefore following it would be the correct moral thing to do. Butler says us as humans are driven by two tendencies self-love and benlovance. On top of these tendencies is where conscience is positioned. Therefore whatever action the conscience brings us to, using Butler’s theory it will bring you towards a loving action either for others or towards yourself. Either way happiness will be brought in some form by following the conscience; by the positive consequences of the action or even just knowing that you have followed God. This will make the world a better happier and easier place to live in because we would know exactly what God wants us to do minimising dilemmas.
Though it can be argued that people following their conscience in the past has not brought happiness, but the opposite. The actions that some people make can sometimes be seen to have no traces to love as the