"Conscience Is the Most Reliable Guide to Ethical Decision Making" Discuss

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"Conscience is the most reliable guide to ethical decision making.” Discuss It is debateable as to whether or not the conscience is the most reliable form of decision making or not. However there are many different opinions on conscience when it comes to decision making. The idea of the conscience has developed from early christian views, however it has now developed through the psychological views of it being linked or part of the mind. The idea of the conscience was also later developed by Freud who suggested that the conscience could be explained best by using scientific knowledge instead of using religious views and opinions on the conscience. St Paul believed the conscience was a moral guide, which is within and doesn’t need any rules or theories to be followed. St Pauls idea of the conscience is universal to everyone this means that you don’t have to be a christian to relate and use the conscience as a moral guide. St Paul uses Romans 2:15 “They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts”. This supports St Paul’s idea that everyone has a conscience within as a moral guide. However it ma not always be best o use our conscience as our moral guide. As if we do use our conscience, the how can people be committed for crimes, as they believed it was right Butler was a christian theologian and philosopher who believed that the conscience was a God given ability to reason. Due to the fact that they were both christians St Paul and Butler agreed on many of their ideas. Butler thought that the conscience should be seen as a judge within everybody, a judge that makes moral decisions for us, he suggests that as it is within all of us and appears to have a higher authority we therefore must listen to it, and take on board the decision in which our conscience makes. One of the main weaknesses is the idea that not everyone can have the
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