CONSCIENCE AND SUPEREGO 427 



In the first sense of conscience, i.e. as an act of conscious- 

 ness, there seems to be no notable difference between Freud's 

 meaning of the term and the traditional meaning. In the 

 derived sense, in which conscience is taken as the norm of 

 conduct, there is considerable difference. We have seen above 

 what Freud believed about the formation of the norms of 

 conscience and about their nature. Let us briefly recount now 

 a more traditional idea. 



(1) Conscience and the norms of conscience 

 following St. Thomas 



According to St. Thomas, conscience is neither a faculty nor 

 a habit, nor any kind of inner voice which infallibly announces 

 the right or wrong. For him conscience is nothing more nor 

 less than an application of ordinary reason or intelligence, not 

 in the realm of philosophy nor of science nor of art, but to 

 particular, concrete actions or conduct, judging whether these 

 be right or wrong. Conduct here is taken in the broadest 

 sense, to include all deliberate thoughts, desires, words, deeds 

 and omissions thereof, and they fall under the judgment of 

 conscience whether they are actions already accomplished or 

 only proposed. In the latter case, if they are proposed, con- 

 science obliges, or induces and instigates, or perhaps merely 

 permits, or, finally, forbids. In the former case, concerning 

 past actions, conscience approves or disapproves, excuses and 

 defends or " bites." Conscience is called the dictate of reason 

 in these practical instances because it is the function of reason 

 to pass the judgment of right and wrong; it is called the natural 

 judge, because it is based on the native power of intelligence 

 knowing that right should be done and wrong avoided; it is 

 called the instinct of the human spirit because the spirit instinc- 

 tively looks for the truth in moral issues. ^° 



All of this refers to the act of conscience, that is, to the 

 judgment passed by reason. To follow this judgment is the 



'" St. Thomas, in De veritate, q. 17, a. 1. 



