Conscience: The self in search of the good

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Chapter 3
Ernest D, Eugene L, Alessia LC, Autumn S

• Conscience The self in search of the good

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The Six Aspects of the Human Person

• The importance of others
• Recall the other from the three famous
  philosophers
• Western view human person as an individual
  others are an obstacle to our freedom.
• Heavy emphasis on autonomy, independence
• We should not see others as roadblocks
• It is only possible for us to become our true
  selves through others

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The Six Aspects of the Human Person

• Narcissism
• Narcissism is the inability to look beyond ones
  self to achieve balance between themselves and
  the other
• Marked by self-absorption
• Manifests itself in feelings of rage/aggression
  against those who do not support the self

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The Six Aspects of the Human Person

• The importance of having direction in life
• Being committed to a certain set of values and
  knowing where you stand on situations
• This is important for ones identity as well as
  for their moral development

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Charles Taylor

• Born in Montreal in 1931
• Professor of philosophy
• Shows great concern over the images that
  Westerners have developed
• Recognizes the need for a new spirituality the
  current human understanding of the self is not
  able to sustain important values such as care for
  others
• Wants to return to Judeo-Christian values
  richer version of the self than that which is
  promoted by todays secularism
• Argues that there is a crucial link between moral
  direction and stance, and the identity.

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The Six Aspects of the Human Person

• Identity lies in commitments
• It is a painful and frightening experience not
  knowing who you are
• We need our identity to provide us a frame that
  allows us to figure out where our commitments lie
  and where we stand

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The Six Aspects of the Human Person

• Identity comes from the direction we take in life
• Our identities are complex and are defined by the
  values that give us direction in life
• Our answers often come in the form of a name I
  am or a social role I am a. This is our
  fundamental stance, and determines our identity.

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The Six Aspects of the Human Person

• The importance of communication and language
• We cannot be inducted into personhood without
  first being initiated into a language
• It is through language that we are taught moral
  and spiritual judgment
• Language contains and shares with others common
  experiences and commitments
• A larger set of words allows us to express our
  experiences in life more precisely, and allows us
  to better relate with others

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The Six Aspects of the Human Person

• The importance of character and ones body
• Character refers to the way our actions become
  fixed to our body over time
• Repeated actions develop into habits that
  influence choices in our life
• Others can recognize us by our habits (kind,
  stubborn, impatient, etc.)

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The Six Aspects of the Human Person

• The importance of conscience
• The Second Vatican Council calls conscience a
  voice that calls us to love and to do what is
  good and to avoid evil.
• Consciences are formed through everyday life
  (society, family, friends, etc.)
• You have a responsibility to be well informed,
  not only about the issues that challenge moral
  living, but also about the views of other moral
  thinkers

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The Six Aspects of the Human Person

• The development of ones conscience
• Conscience is formed in 5 ways
• Conscience develops as you mature
• Conscience develops as you take account of and
  follow the norms, values, virtues, and
  commandments found in Christian tradition as
  guidelines
• Conscience helps deal with moral failures
• Conscience develops as you participate in the
  Eucharist and prayer life of the Church
• Conscience develops as you grow in the virtue of
  humility

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The Six Aspects of the Human Person

• Conscience versus superego Freud
• Conscience is a feeling that warns us that
  something is wrong, while the superego is an
  internal sensor that uses guilt as a punishment.
• Superego stores all of the values and types of
  behaviour taught to us when we were young to help
  us gain approval and acceptance in society
• Children absorb the standards of authority
  figures and peers, especially parents, and guilt
  comes forth immediately if these standards are
  not upheld.

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Discussion

• Do you think that the superego or conscience is
  more effective in regulating behaviour?

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The Three Senses of Conscience

• Conscience as a capacity to recognize right and
  wrong
• Capacity to know what is right/wrong
• Basic focus towards good avoidance of evil
• Sense of value and personal responsibility

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The Three Senses of Conscience

• Conscience as a process of moral reasoning
• S.T.O.P. or L.I.S.T.E.N. decision making models
• Conscience must be constantly formed and informed
• Lifelong process of correcting through personal
  experience, scripture, Church teachings, etc.
• Cannot rely on ourselves formed in community
• Knowing how to perceive and think correctly
• Seeking truth and making it our own

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The Three Senses of Conscience

• Conscience as judgment
• We must act on our conscience and be true to
  ourselves
• Judgment and decisions of what we must do in
  certain situations are based on our values and
  perceptions
• Conscience makes a moral decision my own by
  realizing our stance

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Thomas More

• April 1534 More refuses to swear to the Act of
  Succession and the Oath of Supremacy, which
  vested the succession of the English Crown to the
  descendants of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.
• Due to his actions, More was committed to the
  Tower of London on April 17, and found guilty of
  treason, causing his beheading on July 9, 1535.
• His final words were The Kings good servant,
  but Gods first
• Thomas More did not agree with what his King
  wanted him to, and he stood up for his decision.
  He had a well formed conscience and was able to
  uphold his stance, even though he knew in doing
  so he faced death.
• More was beatified in 1886 and canonized by the
  Catholic Church as a saint in 1935 by Pope Pius
  XI

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Malformed Conscience

• It is possible to go through decision making
  processes and come up with a decision that does
  not promote full humanness. This can be due to a
  malformed conscience.
• There are 6 symptoms that can identify a
  malformed conscience.

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Malformed Conscience

• Rationalization
• Stealing may be wrong sometimes, but large
  stores can afford it because they are making huge
  profits
• We sometimes come up with excuses to justify our
  actions, knowing that they are wrong

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Malformed Conscience

• Trivialization
• Its no big deal everybody else does it
• We can make a situation out to be less important
  than it actually is so that we can justify our
  behaviour, or make it seem like it does not
  really matter what decision we make

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Malformed Conscience

• Misinformation
• My doctor told me that all teenage girls should
  take the birth control pill to prevent getting
  pregnant
• Sometimes, we make decisions because the
  information provided to us by others was not
  entirely true or valid

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Malformed Conscience

• The end justifies the immoral means
• I had to steal the chocolate bar I didnt have
  any money and I hadnt eaten for 12 hours. I get
  sick if I dont eat.
• We use an end that we may think is good, or
  beneficial, to justify the decision that we make
  in order to achieve that outcome

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Malformed Conscience

• Means to an end
• By dropping a nuclear bomb to end the war, well
  end up saving lives.
• We may do something that we know is immoral
  because we think that the outcome will be positive

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Malformed Conscience

• Difficult to reason
• Having been kicked out of his home and finding
  himself with no place to go, a teen acts without
  thinking. He breaks into an empty home to keep
  warm when he could have asked for help from the
  police.
• We may find ourselves in situations that make it
  hard for us to determine what we should or should
  not do at that particular moment.

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L.I.S.T.E.N. Model for Decision Making

• Look for the facts
• Imagine possibilities
• Seek insight beyond your own
• Turn inward
• Expect Gods help
• Name your decision

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L.I.S.T.E.N. Model for Decision Making

• Look for the facts
• What are the facts needed to make a good
  decision?
• Where is this situation happening?
• Why did this happen?
• Who did it affect?

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L.I.S.T.E.N. Model for Decision Making

• Imagine possibilities
• What are all the possible choices that could be
  made in this situation?
• What are the consequences, short- and long- term,
  for each possible decision?
• What is the most loving response I could have in
  this situation?

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L.I.S.T.E.N. Model for Decision Making

• Seek insight beyond your own
• What would my friends and community say I should
  do?
• Is there a legal issue involved?
• What does the Bible say about this situation?

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L.I.S.T.E.N. Model for Decision Making

• Turn inward
• What is my inner reality saying to me?
• What is my conscience telling me?
• What are my personal feelings about this
  situation?
• What are my motives for acting one way or
  another?
• What does my gut say about this?

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L.I.S.T.E.N. Model for Decision Making

• Expect Gods help
• How is God present in this situation?
• How is God with me as I discern what I should do?
• What can I pray for as I make this decision?

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L.I.S.T.E.N. Model for Decision Making

• Name your decision
• What am I going to decide?
• Why should I decide this?
• What values am I living out in making this
  decision?
• What is my plan for carrying out this decision?

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L.I.S.T.E.N. Applied to The Strangest Dream

• Look for the facts
• The US was creating a weapon capable of killing a
  massive number of people to end WWII, a nuclear
  bomb.
• Joseph Rotblat was the only scientist to leave
  the project. It disagreed with what his
  conscience told him was morally right.

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L.I.S.T.E.N. Applied to The Strangest Dream

• Imagine possibilities
• Could he have told the public about the bomb?
• Is it possible to convince others to stop working
  on the bomb?
• What will happen if the bomb is completed?

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L.I.S.T.E.N. Applied to The Strangest Dream

• Seek insight beyond your own
• Do the citizens of the US agree with killing
  innocent lives to end a war?
• What do other governments have to say about the
  building of a nuclear weapon?
• Do any other scientists have deeper feelings
  about the project?

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L.I.S.T.E.N. Applied to The Strangest Dream

• Turn inward
• Rotblat looked within himself and decided that he
  needed to leave the project
• He did this knowing that he would not get the
  notoriety associated with the project

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L.I.S.T.E.N. Applied to The Strangest Dream

• Expect Gods help
• Rotblat was agnostic, but still believed that a
  higher power was present and guiding him in his
  decisions

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L.I.S.T.E.N. Applied to The Strangest Dream

• Name your decision
• Rotlblat ultimately decided that he needed to
  leave the Manhattan project
• The bomb was still created, leading to the end of
  WWII and the deaths of over 150000 innocent
  people in Japan.
• Joseph Rotlblat is renowned for being the only
  one to leave the Manhattan Project, and is the
  creator of PUGWASH.

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S.T.O.P. Decision Making Model

• Search for the facts
• Think about alternatives and consequences
• Others affected
• Prayer

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S.T.O.P. Decision Making Model

• Search for the facts
• Under what circumstances?
• What/why/who/where/when/how?
• Know what you are discussing

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S.T.O.P. Decision Making Model

• Think about alternatives and consequences
• How else can this be solved?
• What are the choices?
• Reflect on the consequences of each decision

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S.T.O.P. Decision Making Model

• Others affected
• Who is affected?
• Who will it negatively affect?
• Consult with others who know best about the
  matter
• Consult those with good intentions at heart

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S.T.O.P. Decision Making Model

• Prayer
• Pray to God for the situation to get better
• Pray for the right answer
• Pray with others
• Meditation and reflection (can use Scripture)

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Conscience Scenarios

• Use the S.T.O.P. method to analyse one of the
  following scenarios
• Students in med-school are given a research
  assignment that requires them to use articles
  from a medical journal. A highly competitive
  student cuts out important sections of the
  articles to keep other students from accessing
  the information.

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Conscience Scenarios

1. Two students are conversing about their favourite
   bands. One of the students admits to some great
   music he downloaded from the internet. The other
   student reacts and says Hey, dont you know
   youre ripping off the artist? Anyway, can you
   burn me a copy of your CD?

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Conscience Scenarios

1. Amelia has connected with a guy on the internet
   and is communicating a mixture of truths and
   untruths about herself, creating a persona she
   considers to be more attractive than how she
   really sees herself.

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S.T.O.P. Applied to Runaway Jury

• S
• Both Fitch and Easter are trying to control the
  jury
• Both appear to be doing it for money
• The trial at has to do with the shooting of
  innocent people and the responsibility that the
  gun company should have for those lives

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S.T.O.P. Applied to Runaway Jury

• T
• A mistrial is a possibility if Fitch or Rohr were
  to go to the judge about the person controlling
  the jury
• Both Fitch or Rohr could pay Easter and Marlee to
  sway the jury their way
• O
• Affected are the gun industry, the families
  affected by gun violence, the jury

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S.T.O.P. Applied to Runaway Jury

• P
• Prayed for God to give the jury the power to make
  the right decision
• Prayed for good to prevail over bad in this trial

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Moral Fibre

• Example Similar to muscle fibre. It must be
  exercised for it to become stronger. If a person
  wants their character to strengthen, they must
  exercise their moral fibre.
• As a child, your character can take many
  different directions but that becomes set,
  essentially, when you mature into adulthood/
• Moral and ethical actions increase character.

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Discussion

• What is the link between values and behaviour?

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Humanism and Secularism

• Humanism is a global view which centers on human
  interest and values, and the individuals
  capacity for reflection and realization through
  reason and action. Humanists typically reject
  ties to the divine in order to focus on the
  individual self, outside of religion.
• Secularism is a view that completely denotes
  religious connotations. Secularists only accept
  reason and matters of logic.

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Discussion

• Do you think that society should move toward
  humanistic or secular views, or should religion
  still be an integral part of society? Explain.

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The Christian Understanding of the Human Person
Based on the Trinity

• In Christian belief God is a union of three
  persons
• One meaning of person is an individual who
  bears rights and responsibilities one of a kind,
  autonomous.
• The word person can also mean the outpouring of
  love toward the other based on the love that
  binds the three persons of the Trinity together.
  God is love.
• Since humans are made in Gods image, each human
  has the outpouring of Gods love inscribed in
  their very being.
• The other is not my hell, you cannot do without
  the other. Human beings are, by nature, social.
• Person means the self as relational.