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WalesReligious StudiesQuick questions
Religion and Ethics (Units 2 and 4)
Quick questions on Conscience: Aquinas and Freud on the moral voice - WJEC A-Level Religious Studies
6short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is freud?Show answer
Freud's account explains why people feel guilt, why consciences differ between cultures and individuals, and why guilt can be irrational or excessive. It is a debunking account: the authority conscience seems to carry is really the internalised authority of one's parents.
What is implications for moral decision-making?Show answer
On Aquinas' view, conscience is reason seeking the truth, so it has genuine authority and should be followed and educated (formed by good moral reasoning and, for the believer, by God's law). On Freud's view, conscience is conditioning, so its promptings have no special authority and may need to be examined or overridden. A religious account adds a third option, conscience as in some sense the voice of God (Newman spoke of conscience as God's law written on the heart), giving it the highest authority.
What is model paragraph?Show answer
The decisive question is whether Freud's super-ego is the whole story about conscience or only part of it. There is strong evidence that upbringing shapes conscience: what people feel guilty about varies enormously across cultures and families, children plainly absorb the prohibitions of their parents, and the timing and content of guilt fit the developmental story Freud tells. Yet two features of conscience resist a purely social reduction.
What is q1?Show answer
What is the difference between synderesis and conscientia? [2 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
What does Freud mean by the super-ego? [2 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
Evaluate the view that conscience is the voice of God. [20 marks]
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