Should Conscience be obeyed (35 marks)
Assess the view that conscince should always be obeyed - (35 marks)
Conscience is differently defined by people, some think its an inner feeling that speaks to person when carrying out a type of actions whilst others might define conscience as a guilt feeling that occurs within a person when performing wrong actions. However, conscience is defined as a moral sense of right and wrong felt by a person through an inner feeling.
In my opinion conscience should always be obeyed because I believe everyone is born with a moral sense of right and wrong, in other words conscience, which is God-given. That conscience enables people to assess whether the actions they are performing are right or wrong. This will help an individual be a good person therefore conscience should always be obeyed.
However, there would be many different approaches to this statement, as some Philosophers would agree with the statement and some may not. In this essay I'm going to asses the view that conscience should always be obeyed.
The first perspective I'm going to bring forward is from Fromm who believed the moral centre came from those we were surrounded with and also from people that exert their authority over someone e.g parents, teachers etc. He believed that the authority that would be exerted over someone would involve some kind of reward and punishment which overtime would become central to our understanding to morality. He said that if a guilty conscience occurred it would be a result of not obeying or displeasing those people who are in authority and if a good feeling of conscience occurred (such as a sense of security and well being) meant that the person is obeying those people in authority and therefore to live in a moral structuralist society which is beneficial for both the individual and the society as a whole.
"Good conscience is consciousness of pleasing authority, guilty conscience is consciousness of displeasing it" (Eric Fromm 1947:109)
An example to that would be
Conscience is differently defined by people, some think its an inner feeling that speaks to person when carrying out a type of actions whilst others might define conscience as a guilt feeling that occurs within a person when performing wrong actions. However, conscience is defined as a moral sense of right and wrong felt by a person through an inner feeling.
In my opinion conscience should always be obeyed because I believe everyone is born with a moral sense of right and wrong, in other words conscience, which is God-given. That conscience enables people to assess whether the actions they are performing are right or wrong. This will help an individual be a good person therefore conscience should always be obeyed.
However, there would be many different approaches to this statement, as some Philosophers would agree with the statement and some may not. In this essay I'm going to asses the view that conscience should always be obeyed.
The first perspective I'm going to bring forward is from Fromm who believed the moral centre came from those we were surrounded with and also from people that exert their authority over someone e.g parents, teachers etc. He believed that the authority that would be exerted over someone would involve some kind of reward and punishment which overtime would become central to our understanding to morality. He said that if a guilty conscience occurred it would be a result of not obeying or displeasing those people who are in authority and if a good feeling of conscience occurred (such as a sense of security and well being) meant that the person is obeying those people in authority and therefore to live in a moral structuralist society which is beneficial for both the individual and the society as a whole.
"Good conscience is consciousness of pleasing authority, guilty conscience is consciousness of displeasing it" (Eric Fromm 1947:109)
An example to that would be