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Assess the View That Conscience Should Be Obeyed

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Assess the view that conscience should always be obeyed (35 marks).
Conscience can be seen as a form of moral judgement of right and wrong. The term is often used in everyday life to refer to thoughts that challenge negative ideas. Philosophers such as Newman and Butler believe that it should strictly be obeyed, obedience being the act of following regardless of the circumstances, as conscience is God-given. However, psychologists such as Freud and Piaget believe otherwise, that conscience is not necessarily from God but is developed from our moral development and the influence society has on us.
Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, focused on an individual’s past and its subconscious influence in later life, particularly adulthood. He argued that conscience is based around guilt. Freud suggested that our conscience is the voice of our individual desires that must be satisfied. In particular, he emphasised the importance of sexual desires and argued that we feel guilty or dissatisfied as individuals if we go against our conscience. He reasoned that through early developmental years, we learn values that influence our moral awareness in what is right and wrong, which develop for later on in our lives.
Freud divided human consciousness into three separate elements: the ego, the id and the super-ego. According to Freud, the id contains our emotional and physical needs and is the more selfish aspect of our personality. On the other hand, the super-ego is the moral aspect which tries to maintain the id. In between the id and the super-ego, Freud said the third element is the ego which is neither selfish nor moral but instead tries to keep a balance between the two. Conscience is mostly the super-ego, the most controlling, which reminds us if something is wrong or right. Freud may then argue that we have very little freedom if we obey our conscience all the

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