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6 - St. Thomas Aquinas on Conscience

from Part II - Conscience According to Major Figures and Traditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2021

By
Cajetan Cuddy OP
Edited by
Jeffrey B. Hammond  and
Helen M. Alvare
Jeffrey B. Hammond
Affiliation:
Faulkner University
Helen M. Alvare
Affiliation:
George Mason University, Virginia
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Summary

Cajetan Cuddy looks at conscience through the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. Conscience is an act of ordering knowledge – some universal and some particular – to an act, whether past, present, or future. Conscience directs future acts, and regarding past acts, can accuse or excuse. Aquinas compares conscience and synderesis – the person’s inclination shaping her understanding. Synderesis turns human nature to good and objects to evil. It gives awareness of the principles of morality to be applied to actions. Synderesis concerns knowing the principles applicable to all actions, and conscience applies knowledge to a specific act. Thus, conscience comes from synderesis. But conscience has limits and can be wrong and need correction. A mistaken conscience does not stop a person’s orientation to the truth, and error can be fixed. Conscience and God’s law both bind for Aquinas, not because conscience is perfect or reason is independent of the law, but because conscience mediates God’s norms to humans doing a particular action. This is done through the application of synderesis, which is always ordered to moral truth, meaning to God.

Keywords

St. Thomas Aquinasfallibilityspeculative knowledgepractical knowledgenatureprudencehigher reasonlower reasonSumma Theologiaesynderesis
Type
Chapter
Information
Christianity and the Laws of Conscience
An Introduction
 , pp. 112 - 131
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Recommended Reading

Brennan, Robert Edward. Thomistic Psychology: A Philosophic Analysis of the Nature of Man, edited by Cuddy, Cajetan. Tacoma, wa: Cluny Media, 2016.Google Scholar
Caulfield, Joseph. “Practical Ignorance in Moral Actions.” Laval théologique et philosophique 7, no. 1 (1951): 69–122.Google Scholar
Cessario, Romanus. “On Bad Actions, Good Intentions, and Loving God.” In Theology and Sanctity, edited by Cuddy, Cajetan, 172–95. Ave Maria, fl: Sapientia Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Doherty, Reginald. The Judgments of Conscience and Prudence. River Forest, il: The Aquinas Library, 1961.Google Scholar
Dolan, S. Edmund, “Resolution and Composition in Speculative and Practical Discourse.” Laval théologique et philosophique 6, no. 1 (1950): 9–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elders, Leo J. “St. Thomas Aquinas’ Doctrine of Conscience.” In Lex et Libertas: Freedom and Law according to St. Thomas Aquinas, edited by Elders, L. J. and Hedwig, K., 125–34. Vatican City: Pontificia Accademia di S. Tommaso e di Religione Cattolica, 1987.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Tobias. “Conscience and Synderesis.” In The Oxford Handbook of Aquinas, edited by Davies, Brian and Stump, Eleonore, 255–64. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
McInerny, Ralph. Ethica Thomistica: The Moral Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, rev. ed. Washington, dc: The Catholic University of America Press, 1997.Google Scholar
McInerny, Ralph. “Prudence and Conscience.” The Thomist 38, no. 2 (1974): 291–305.Google Scholar
Pinckaers, Servais. “Conscience and the Christian Tradition.” In The Pinckaers Reader: Renewing Thomistic Moral Theology, edited by Berkman, John and Steven Titus, Craig, 321–41. Washington, dc: The Catholic University of America Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Potts, Timothy C. Conscience in Medieval Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reese, Philip Neri. “The End of Ethics: A Thomistic Investigation.” New Blackfriars 95 (2014): 285–94.Google Scholar
Somme, Luc-Thomas. “The Infallibility, Impeccability and Indestructibility of Synderesis.” Studies in Christian Ethics 19, no. 3 (2006): 403–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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