3B: Fletcher’s SE - Principles Flashcards
1
Q
What are the six fundamental principles?
A
- love is the only good
- love is the ruling norm of Christianity
- love equals justice
- love for all
- loving ends justify the means
- love decides situationally
2
Q
Fundamental principle - love is the only good:
A
- Fletcher argues the only good thing in the universe that is truly good is love. Love is the only ‘intrinsic good’
- Fletcher believed that actions can only be morally good if they promote the most loving outcome
- Paul (1Corinthians 13) “and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love”
- Fletcher further argues that agape needs to be linked to ethics because it is not a ‘thing’ rather it is an ‘action’. Therefore agape can only be expressed when we ‘do’ actions.
3
Q
Fundamental principle - love is the ruling norm:
A
- Fletcher argues that religious moral rules have been given false high status in Christian ethics. He points to Jesus who broke several religious laws in his lifetime.
- e.g. when spoke to a Samaritan woman. Jewish men are forbidden to talk to a woman in public and Jews are not to associate with any Samaritans. Jesus potentially viewed religious laws as less important according to Fletcher.
- Jesus illustrated that love was the new covenant between God and his people and replaces the old religious laws.
4
Q
Fundamental principle - love equals justice:
A
- Fletcher argues love and justice are the same thing. “Love and justice as the same, for justice is love distributed, nothing else”
- true justice is just love at work in society, if everyone worked towards creating loving outcomes there would be no injustices.
5
Q
Fundamental principle - love for all:
A
- moral agents should act in a loving way to everyone; even their enemies. E.g. Jesus in Matthew 5, “love your enemies”.
- Jesus is asking for people to love everyone and expect nothing in return.
6
Q
Fundamental principle - loving ends justify the means:
A
- Fletcher rejects the NL idea that the end should not be used to justify the means.
- he rejects deontological approach to ethics and instead suggests the teleological approach.
- loving outcomes can justify breaking a traditional religious rule, e.g. stealing a loaf of bread for a starving family.
- Fletcher does add though that it is not justified if the loving outcome was only accidental
7
Q
Fundamental principle - love decides situationally:
A
- traditionally hijab is have sought laws to become slaves to. However they always fail as they are ultimately unfollowable in practice
- Fletcher believe that there should be no rules about what should and should not be done in a particular situation. Instead we should have the reliability to create the most loving outcome in every ethical situation we face.
- we must decide ‘there and then’ which action will create the most loving outcome in a particular ethical situation
8
Q
What are the four working principles?
A
- pragmatism
- relativism
- positivism
- personalism
9
Q
Working principle - pragmatism:
A
- moral decision must be pragmatic; I.e. work in practice.
- principle linked closely to loving ends justify the means.
10
Q
Working principle - relativism:
A
- belief that no action is right or wrong in itself.
- SE is relativist as it believes there are no universal moral rights and wrongs, e.g. the act of stealing, in itself, is not right or wrong. The rightness or wrongness depends on the loving outcome.
11
Q
Working principle - positivism:
A
- situation ethics is based on faith not reason.
- this is because SE is dependent on people accepting, through faith alone; that agape is from God.
- Fletcher says he cannot prove agape is from God, you just have to accept it.
12
Q
Working principle - personalism:
A
- Fletcher states people are more important than religious rules
- e.g. conjoined twins. If they were both going to die, situation ethics would support the decision to separate as it mean putting life and wellbeing before the religious rule of ‘do not kill’
