Another supporter of the conscience being God given is the 18th century philosopher Joseph Butler. For Butler, the conscience is the most important thing a human can posses, he believed the most crucial thing which distinguishes men and women from animals is the possession of the faculty of reflection and conscience; for Butler being human is being moral. He argued that ‘There is a principle of reflection in men by which they distinguish between approval and disapproval of their own actions... this principle in man... is conscience.’ So like Aquinas, Butler also believed that it is the conscience which helps us choose between right and wrong, and guides us in moral decision making. He also believed that the conscience is an automatic response, that it ‘magisterially exerts itself spontaneously without being consulted’ therefore it is something which is not only automatic it is something of authority. Butler saw human nature as hierarchal, at the top he saw the conscience which is linked to the ‘principle of reflection’, then self-love which is the want of well being for yourself, with that is benevolence which is the want for well being of others; finally the basic drivers, these consist of things such as the need for food and sleep.
Unlike Butler and Aquinas, Freud did not believe that the conscience was the voice of God. Freud was a 19th century psychologist who did not believe in religion at all and claimed that it was in fact just an illusion; a conclusion he came to after working for a long time with many people who had suffered mental breakdowns, and realised that the one thing they all clung onto was religion. For Freud the conscience is just a part of the human mind, that like a person it is built and shaped by experience, this in a way can be linked to social conditioning. He believed that a person’s conscience is linked to their upbringing, this then means that it is directly determined by the way in which you are brought up or conditioned as a child, for example your education growing up, the way your parents teach you between right and wrong; a child with two criminal parents for example would grow up believing that stealing is morally okay and his conscience would inflict no feeling of guilt or sense of wrong doing. Freud like Butler did also divide the person into three sections. The first of these three sections is the superego, it is this part of the person that contains the conscience, it helps you to understand things; knowing the difference between right and wrong. It is the inner part of you, contains feelings of guilt knowing you’ve done wrong. Within superego you set demands on yourself, you set your morals and standards. The second is the ego, this is your conscience self, the way you act and the way people perceive you, this part of you can be changed by the way in which you react to certain situations acting in different ways. The final part of a person is the ID, this is linked to physical needs, similar to Butlers basic drivers they are the need to eat, drink and sleep they are things which you do without thinking; they are your unconscious self, to an extent they are animalistic natures.
Another 19th century theologian who would disagree with Freud is John Newman, who believed that the conscience was not just a gift from God but is in fact the voice of God. He believed that when a person follows their conscience they are simultaneously, in some mysterious way, following divine law. That the conscience is actually a ‘messenger’ is actually a messenger of God and it is God speaking to us when we feel this intuitive moral knowledge and make decisions. As he believed that the conscience comes from God he argued that for Christians is meant much more and wasn’t simply ‘a law of the mind’. Newman said that ‘If, as if the case, we feel responsibility, are ashamed, are frightened, at transgressing the voice of conscience, this implies there is One to whom we are responsible, before whom we are ashamed, whose claims upon us we fear.’ This idea was agreed with by Augustine of Hippo a fourth century theologian, who also believed that conscience was to be identified with the voice of God whispering to us about what is right and wrong. He believed that as the conscience was the gift of God we should listen to it and act upon it.
Unlike Newman and Augustine of Hippo, Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg followed the same beliefs as Freud in that they did not believe that the conscience came from God. After Freud many psychologists such as Piaget furthered his ideas to include immature and mature conscience, arguing that the conscience develops as we grow; however not everyone will develop to reach a mature conscience. Piaget argued that a child’s ability to reason morally depends on cognitive development; this focuses on the way in which children conceptualize things around them. Piaget also suggested two stages of moral development. The first of these two stages is Heteronomous this happens between the age of 5 and 10 when the conscience is still at its most immature stage, they understand rules are not to be broken and expect punishment if they are; the consequence of the action will indicate whether it is right or wrong. The second is Autonomous which is in takes place in ages 10+, this is where children develop their own rules and understand how rules operate in and help society. The move towards autonomous morality takes place when children are less dependent on other for moral authority. Lawrence Kohlberg followed Piaget and identified six stages of moral development which should be followed in sequence. Firstly people move from behaving in socially acceptable ways because they are told to, to caring for others, to keeping the law, to caring for others, and finally respecting universal principles and the demands of individual conscience. Kohlberg did however believe that most adults never got past the keeping the law stage.
In conclusion, it appears the majority of philosophers believe that the conscience is in fact the voice of God; there are those however who believe otherwise, they believe that the conscience is in fact a result of other factors such as social upbringing. They believe that it is not the voice of God that guides us to make moral decisions, but it is the way in which we have been taught to see the difference between right and wrong according to what we have been taught. It could however be said, that if the conscience is something that is in fact out of our control, it cannot be attributed to social conditioning but it is actually given to us from a higher authority.
