SITUATION ETHICS Flashcards
What is Situation Ethics?
A Christian Ethic that is relativist and teleological.
What is agape?
Sacrificial, self-giving love. God is the source of agape.
Give an example of agape in the bible.
“Love one another as I have loved you.” St John’s Gospel.
How did Jesus promote agape in the bible? Give an example.
Broke the oral laws of the Sabbath in order to help human beings. “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
What is the agapeistic calculus?
In every moral decision we ask the question ‘How can love best be served?’
What are the six propositions? Give at least 3.
1) Love is the only thing that is intrinsically good.
2) Love is the ruling norm in ethical decision-making.
3) Love and justice are the same thing.
4) Love wills the neighbour’s good.
5) Love is the goal or end of the act.
6) Love decides on each situation as it arises without a set of laws to guide it.
What are the four working principles?
- Pragmatism
- Relativism
- Positivism
- Personalism
What is meant by pragmatism?
Based on experience rather than theory.
What is meant by relativism?
Based on making the absolute laws of Christian ethics relative.
What is meant by positivism?
Begins with the belief in the reality and importance of love.
What is meant by personalism?
Persons, not laws or anything else, are at the centre of situation ethics.
How does Fletcher describe conscience?
A verb not a noun; a term that describes attempts to make decisions creatively.
What did John Henry Newman believe conscience is?
Somehow the voice of God.
What does Fletcher not see conscience as?
A part of a human being like a mind or soul.
Give three strengths of SE.
1) People become more important than principles and absolute laws.
2) It is easy to understand but also relative to each situation. WP = relativism.
3) It has its basis in the belief in the importance of love and God as love. WP = positivism.
