Aquinas on Conscience Essay

For Aquinas, conscience is the act of applying our knowledge of corking and malefic to what we do (or might do). So in order to (naturally) know what is a reas wizardd action or large wholeness, star necessitate to understand how affaires argon naturally ordered by divinity primarily what human nature is and what occasions it needs and deserves. This order which dictates what is good or evil behaviour is called the Natural Law by Aquinas. God can and does also preternaturally reveal what is and is not in congruity with his will, e.g. the Ten Commandments and Christs deuce Great Commandments. One also needs to apply this knowledge to what one does, and so one needs to be liberate to act in accordance with what one knows to be the Divine order of issues, or not.Our conscience is our realization that what we might do or have do is good or not, but it is not the unfeigned doing or the choosing. On a skilful note, for Aquinas conscience is the act of spirit what is sk illful and wrong, though the name whitethorn be applied by telephone extension to a habit or designer of performing this act of understanding. The virtue of fashioning correct judgments about accountability or wrong, i.e. appropriate exercises of conscience is called prudence. The reason that this is definitive is that one cannot do the right thing if one does not know what the right thing is. So, if someone has problems with their conscience, it does not come along appropriate to blame them.Children do not have fully formed consciences, and do not always understand what the right thing to do is. If a chela does wrong because he or she didnt know any better, or because he or she thought it was the right thing to do, we do not (or should not) blame and penalize him or her. Aquinas therefore believes that not only is one excused from fault if ones conscience is in error, one also is bound to do the wrong thing if ones conscience tells one that it is the RIGHT thing to do. He al so believes that one has a duty to have a well-formed conscience, one that knows what the right thing to do is. Even though an earring conscious excuses one from doing wrong, one may have done wrong in letting ones conscience fall into error.