To what extent, if at all, should conscience be ignored when making moral decisions?

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Siobhan Burrow 1081

To what extent, if at all, should conscience be ignored when making moral decisions?

We cannot know what conscience is in absolute terms and various models of conscience have existed throughout Christian history. There are two main approaches to conscience there is the Intuitionist approach and the Rationalistic approach. The intuitionist approach is that our conscience is rooted in our intuitive or God given feelings of right and wrong. On the other hand rationalistic approaches claim that conscience is rooted in the power of reason. Many theologians have given their definition of conscience; St Augustine took an intuitionistic approach to conscience and claimed that conscience is “Gods voice whispering to us” (Considering Conscience David Torevell.) By contrast St Thomas Aquinas took a rationalistic approach to conscience claiming that conscience is synderesis or the repeated use of practical reason. Aquinas further stated that it is the solemn duty of all to follow what conscience dictates even if it leads us to err morally. St Augustine’s approach to conscience simply reminds us that God should be present in all our moral decision-making. However Augustine fails to give any credit to our own power of reason in working out what is good our evil.

For me I believe that conscience is not just a voice whispering in my ear or a feeling or instinct, it is my judgement to do the best thing in that situation. So therefore even when you believe that your conscience is corrupt or underdeveloped can you afford to ignore it? The phrase you must follow your conscience means that we must do what we honestly believe to be right. It does not mean that others have to agree with your decision. One of the most important ways of learning is through our mistakes. We may have one immediate reaction to a situation but when we then reason it out we discover other moral dimensions that are not immediately visible.

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Although we cannot know what conscience is in absolute terms. There is lots of evidence to suggest that humanity does have an almost instinctive tendency to make moral judgements. These judgements are based upon both our intuition and our power of reason. This means that my initial moral reacition to a situation may not be the same as our first moral decision, which is the product of our power of reason, both are equally as important in moral decision-making. Bishop Butler asserts “conscience automatically exerts its power over us it is God given.” This is from intuition, a gut ...

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