Sit Eth

Question 1

What is situation ethics?

Answer 1

A doctrine of flexibility in the application of moral laws according to circumstances

Question 2

To develop situation ethics?

Answer 2

Joseph fletcher

Question 3

Who is Joseph fletcher

Answer 3

Fletcher, and American Protestant priest, however converted to atheism, was the main founder of situation ethics. Who believed that religious laws no longer suited the changes in society

Question 4

What was the original society and why did it need changing what did Fletcher tried to change it to and why?

Answer 4

The original legalistic society (an absolute rule based society, where right/wrong has been set in stone) needed updating, developing situationism, a ‘principled relativism’ (between legalism and antonism) whereby the situation a list and does a decision making situation with rules kept in a ‘subservient place’ with actions committed through ‘Love and reason… When the chips are down” in order to “do the most loving thing”

Question 5

What was the name of Fletchers book

Answer 5

Situation ethics

Question 6

Why did Fletcher believe that the legalistic society was no longer affective?

Answer 6

Fletcher reinforced in his book, situation ethics, that in order for society to be successful, the universiliable principles had to be deviated from as life’s complexities require additional rules for example murder is against the law however in war or abortion or self defence this type of murder does not receive the same punishment

Question 7

Before the 1960s what was different about following rules?

Answer 7

Pre-1960s, people were very devoted to obeying the commands of God through the church and Scriptures, These rules if followed lead to good moral behaviour. Kant extending that moral rules have intrinsic value and should be obeyed despite the consequences, believing that moral rules are a universalible principle, meaning that they are to be applied to any situation

Question 8

What changes occurred leading to the development of situation ethics in the 1960s? And why were the religious rules deviated from?

Answer 8

Situation ethics was developed in order to benefit the majority from the changes occurring in society, during the 1960s the moral rules were no longer seen as universalible principle, as it face many changes, one of the most prominent being in the making of the contraceptive pill and the legalisation of abortion; these new rules abandoning the Bible is commands that life should be in the “hands of God “, as well as this the American outcome in the Vietnamese war and the assassination of Kennedy lead to a D to distrust of the government and disappointment in the filming of the American dream

Question 9

What were the effects on society of the development of the contraceptive pill? And how did the church react

Answer 9

The production of the contraceptive pill lead to sexual liberation, leading to non-marital sex and sex for pleasure rather than the churches beliefs of sexual intercourse or child bearing. This new transformation in society however lead to adulterous relationship is and pleasurable sex and which to the church is “lowers the moral standards” of society

Question 10

What was the churches reaction to the change and updating of society?

Answer 10

The church believed that the “realm of sexual behaviour lowered the moral standards of society, and believed that the more frequent secular society gave youths “greater independence” leading to the “weakening of family bonds and religious influences “ and believe that by utilising the contraceptive pill, it did not advocate a “sane and responsible attitude towards life and marriage”

Question 11

What what are fletcher is unique situations and how did they expressed his views of situation ethics?

Answer 11

Fletcher developed his theory by giving unique situations, these being situations that could not be resolved by using absolute rules but needed agape in order to see what all do the most good for the most amount of people, then this decision will utilise. For example you’re in a burning house and you only have time to save one person who do you save your dad or A Doctor Who has the cure for cancer? The right thing to do according to flecture is to save the doctor because this outcome will do the greatest good for the most amount of people have a most will save their father
He real life example of a unique situation, is the Hiroshima bomb, Fletcher would say that this action was right although despite killing 80,000 people it ended World War II, and without it the world the war could have carried on ofr at least another 2 years and a prediction had made that there would be over 80,000 more deaths so therefore this action was justified

Question 12

What did Philip should believe about agape?

Answer 12

Fletcher believed that people’s decisions should be fuelled by agape and not by laws, he believed that by using agape to determine one’s actions, they can lead only to good as “Love is the ultimate law “and is “unquestionably valid”. Agape when applied to situation ethics is divine, being the quality of God, unconditional, self-sacrificing, as he may need to make personal sacrifices in order to do the most good for the most people, for example saving the doctor and leaving father in the burning house, agape should also be active as you personally have to do something to use agape, it should be volitional meaning that it should be done out of choice, if this is the case it is more meaningful. And finally thoughtful

Question 13

What is agape?

Answer 13

Agape the type of love that involves faithfulness and commitment and act of the well it is not a romantic love all emotional love but by using agape to choose your actions it can only produce good outcomes

Question 14

What did J a T Robinsoncontribute to situation ethics?

Answer 14

Robinson believe that the world had changed vastly that it would become “increasingly difficult to know what the true defence of Christian truth requires “, in his book honest to God, writing that due to the changes it is too difficult to abide by Christine Rose, so therefore they should be modified to suit the majority

Question 15

How did JT Robinson challenge a transcendent view of God?

Answer 15

Robinson Challenger the transcendent few of God, agreeing with Paul Tillich church suggesting that God is “the ground of our being” but he is not “deux ex machina” meaning that God does not interfere with human problems, but allows people to solve their own issues recently response from our actions . This reinforcing the idea of people making their own decisions based on agape and not the legalistic rules

Question 16

What does Robinson believe about man come of age?

Answer 16

Robinson believed that fletches situation ethics was the only ethic for “man come age “, enabling people to autonomously make their own rational decisions based upon a reason and logic using the roses guidelines, however these decisions would be based on agape, on doing what is right for the situation, “doing the most loving thing “. Which both benefitted society and enabled humans to be free from the restraints of religious teachings, allowing humanity to become more “intellectually in rationally mature”

Question 17

Right this after agape. Explain how Jesus was the advocate of new morality?

Answer 17

Jesus, the advocate of the new morality, showed did jawing the new Testament is it going to be based on the automatic door of love adopting the classical situationist approach, showing love and compassion reinforcing the weakness of using absolute laws as a means of judging individual moral cases. Four example on the sabbath, Jesus touched and healed a leper however the fact that you’re not able to work on a Sunday showed his actions to be wrong and he shouldn’t have healed him, however Jesus lead his actions by agape which shows the Marla come off the action to be a good one despite breaking the rules, this demonstrating that laws have to be broken in order to do the most loving thing. Jesus declared that “sabbath was made for the man, and not man for the sabbath” show me that love overalls all absolutes

Another example of Jesus showed agape to fuel his actions was the example of the adulterous women was to be stoned to death, but Jesus saved her and said that “he who casts the first stone should be without sin”

Question 18

What are the 4 working principles of situation ethics? Describe each of them using a quote and an example

Answer 18

Pragmatism this means that the course of action should be “had my dog not dogma” meaning that the action should be practical and useful rather than blindly following the rules in order to decide what action to take this shown by Jesus when he says for “sabbath was made for the man, I’m not man for the sabbath “ enforcing the idea that rules
Relativism, this rejects absolute such as never stating that rules should be broken in order to do “the most loving thing “. Fletcher demonstrating that the only way to look upon a situation relatively is to use agape suggesting that “Love relativises the absolute, it does not absolute the relative “. USE STARVING CHILD
Situation ethics also relies on positivism, this meaning that it recognises that “Love is the ultimate law “ and it’s volitional allowing people to freely express agape. Supported by send Augustine stating that “love with care and then what will, do?”
Finally personalism. Legalists believe that people should work for the law, however situation ethics demands of people should be put first as laws are there to benefit the people. When making moral decision of the question should be who should be helped?, Rather than what is the law? All of these for working principles emphasising thr importance of humans in situations

Question 19

What did Fletcher say about using the bible as a law book?

Answer 19

“Either melancholy or at a frustrating will follow if we turn the Bible into a lawbook “

Question 20

What are the six fundamental principles of situation ethics?

Answer 20

Fletcher also stated that there are six fundamental principles of situation ethics regarding agape, being that only one “thing is intrinsically good: namely love, nothing else, the ruling norm is love “, “Love and justice are the same “, love is not liking but altruistic, and agape should be shown “Whether we like him or not “
Fletcher also believed that love is the only “means nothing else “, as situation ethics is a teleological argument the outcome is important and should bring about the most agape Finally “love decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively “meaning the agape should be made spontaneously regarding the current situation

Question 21

Evaluation points for situation ethics include the weakness points and where they would go within the essay

Answer 21

JOSEPH FETCHER
CHANGES IN SOCIETY WHY NEED SE
CHURCH RESPONSE
AGAPAE 
What's good for one person may not be to another all wrong for example life support machine
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF AGAPAE
UNIQUE SITUATIONS 
Barclay: fF too optimistic of humanity
Barclay: Too extreme 
JESUS ADVOCATE OF NEW MORALITY 
Barclay: situation ethics contradicts the Bible's decalogue caused Fletcher become an atheist (not CE)
Pope Pius XII Believe it's an excuse to commit bad acts
4 WORKING PRINCIPLES
Relativism is too hard to apply and know when to break law 
Relativism breaks religious laws
JAT ROBINSON GOD AND MAN COME OF AGE

Question 22

Name the weakness points in order of essay

Answer 22

Agape is subjective what’s right to one person may be wrong
Barclay believes Fletcher is too optimistic on humanity to do the right thing
Barclay believes Fletcher is a unique situations are too extreme
Barclay claim situation ethics contradicts the Bible is Decalogue
Pope Pius the 12th believes it’s an excuse to commit bad acts
Relativism is hard to apply and to know when to break rules LINK CHRISTIAN ETHIC
Relativism breaks religious laws LINK CHRISTIAN ETHIC

Question 23

The fault weaknesses for situation ethics in order

Answer 23

AGAPAE
A problem with agape, is the fact that is very subjective, this meaning that what may seem to be the most loving thing for one person may be wrong to many other people for example A relative me turn a life support machine off which to them maybe doing “the most loving thing” how however they are killing a person which is morally wrong why law and conscience. This weakens the theory of the situation ethics as it shows that AGAPAE is not “unquestionably valid “, and therefore cannot be used to make every moral in as it may lead to a bad outcomes
UNIQUE SITUATIONS
A criticism of fletches unique situations, stemmed from Barclay who believed that the outcome of actions led by agape did not lead to positive consequences. He argued that Fletcher was too optimistic when suggesting that people could choose an action due to whether or not it would cause the most amount of agape for the most amount of people, as love a selfish as we may be influenced by personal preferences. For example of the burning building, people are more likely to save the father despite there being a doctor with a cure for cancer, it’s the weather is not the most loving thing to do in terms of situation ethics; however it is unrealistic to suggest that this wouldn’t be the case. Proving situation ethics to you not to be in effective ethic as sHowing the most AGAPAE to the most amount of people is not always the motivation when choosing actions as it is very unrealistic that people will “put your principle aside to do the best thing”
THE Unique situations that fletcher used in order to demonstrate when rules need to be rejected in order to “do the most loving thing” is flawed by Barclay. For Barclay unique situations are too extreme in order to compare when rules should be abandoned, stating that “it is much easier to agree that extraordinary situation meed extraordinary measures than to think that there are no laws for ordinary everyday life”. This weakens situation ethics as an theory to base moral decisions on, as it cannot be applied every day situations as life-and-death are lot a regular occur ace in everyday life therefor suggesting that rules can only be broken in these unique situations decisions, and therefore is not a solid theory to relying on to know the moral worth of actions
JESUS THE ADVOCATE OF THR NEW MORALITY
Barclay claimed that situation ethics’ take on there being no absolute moral laws contradicted the Bible’s Decalogue, (as fletcher stated that “with cheap melancholy or utter frustration will follow if we turn the bible into a law book”) for example thou shalt not commit adultery along with the other commandments. This ignorance of the Bible’s laws shows situation ethics not to be a truly Christian ethic as it does not follow the absolute rules of God but shows that it is just to abandon them if it will cause the most agape
Pope Pius XII similar to Barclay did I not agree with SE, banning I from being being discussed in the church, he called se an “individualistic and subjective appeal to appeal to the concrete circumstances if actions to justify decisions made in opposition to the natural law or God’s revealed will” reinforcing that it was an excuse to commit bad actions; weakens the theory as from the idea from Pius SE does not always promote the best consequence for the most amount of people but in fact justifies wrong decisions lessening support for the theory and ultimately this made JAT Robinson redraw his developments of the theory
RELATIVISM
Despite relativism allowing a more personal approach to decision making, due to SE being relative it is very hard to know when or when not to abandon the absolute laws and use AGAPAE toake a final decision as de to each situation being unique there is no where written down how to apply AGAPAE fletcher assuming that humans already know. This therefore shows there to be no guidelines of what the right choice is, as a person turning off a life support machine for someone they know will never recover to save energy will believe ta right but ultimately they are killing someone. Showing a relative approach such as this is very hard to apply.

PRAGMATISM
Pope Pius XII state that SE is unworkable as it is near impossible to determine the consequences of an outcome, for example mother steal to feed starving child to save life, so stealing justified however the child may be allergic to the food and get ill therefore intend good but not. Bad as showing not as practical as fletcher reinforced