Situation Ethics Flashcards
What does situation ethics argue
- Situation ethics argues there is one moral rule - that we should do the most loving thing- and this needs to be applied to each unique situation that we face
- Love is absolute but we should relativise it to the situation in front of us
Which two unhelpful extremes in ethical thought does situation ethics supposedly avoid
Situation ethics avoids legalism. Legalism is the over reliance on applying endless rigid rules. It has been a major problem for fletcher in Catholicism , Protestantism and Judaism and Fletcher says it leads to Puritanism which involves making the rule something with greater dignity than the person.For a truly ethical approach Fletcher argues that people must come at the centre
Situation ethics also avoids antinomianism which is the denial of the possibility of any rules. It is found within the ideas of Nietzsche and Sartre who believe there are no rules to follow but our own choices
What is the first one of the four working principles
The first one of the four working principles is pragmatism. This means we must seek practical solutions which actually work to achieve success. Fletcher says the solution must always work and produce a good outcome
-Fletcher makes clear his debt to American pragmatism as represented by Pierce, Deviey and William James
What is an example of a situation where pragmatism should have been used
Pragmatism should have been used with the case of Jodie and Mary the conjoined twins. The Catholic Church wanted to let both girls die as they said to kill one and save the other would be an evil/ bad act. However fletcher would have disagreed as letting both girls die is not the most pragmatic approach and a better approach would have been to save one of the girls
What is the second one of fletchers four working principles
The second working principle is relativism. This means the right thing to do always depends on the context. Whatever we do must be related to both the facts about ourselves and what we are able to do and the facts about the particular situation.
-Although love always applies and is the reason to act , the specifics of how love applies varies situationally
What are examples of relativism
Examples of relativism include that absolutes like do not steal become relative to love according to fletcher e.g if love demands that you steal to feed the hungry, then you steal
What is the third working principle
The third working principle is positivism which involves figuring out what gods love would support in a situation and therefore making sure all acts are committed in Christian love
What is the fourth working principle
The fourth working principle is personalism. Personalism requires that we place people , not principles or rules at the centre of our moral decision making
What is the first of the six propositions
The first proposition is “only one this is intrinsically good,namely love:nothing else at all”
What is the second of the six propositions
The second of the six propositions is “the ruling norm of Christian decision making is love nothing else “
This is consistently exemplified in the New Testament when Jesus replaces the laws of the Old Testament simply with the principle of love
He even summed up the whole law as love god and love your neighbour
What is the third of the six propositions
The third of the six working propositions is “love and justice are the same for justice is love distributed,nothing else”
-This is showing that justice and love are not opposites as often thought but instead justice is Christian love applied rationally in a calculated manner
What is the fourth of the six propositions
the fourth of the six propositions is that “Love wills the neighbours good wether we like him or not”
-This highlights how agape love is a selfless commitment to treat others the best we can, no matter our opinions on them
What is the fifth proposition
The fifth proposition is “only ends justifies means, nothing else”
- This is Fletcher arguing that if our aim is love then any means of achieving it is justified
- This proposition reveals how absolutely teleological this theory is. Everything is geared towards making life as good as it could be for people
What is the sixth proposition
The sixth proposition is that “Loves decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively”
-With this Fletcher is saying love decides “there and then” and knowledge of how to love does not help us make situation based decisions
What is a weakness that could be pointed out about the first proposition
- The first proposition, that love is the only thing that is intrinsically good, begs the question of how forgiveness and humility and other virtues are not intrinsically good
- However it may be argued that these virtues are possibly captured within the bracket of love and fletcher does go some way in his work to try and demonstrate how such virtues ARE contained within the commandment of love
What type of love is fletcher talking about when he references love
Fletcher is talking about agape love when he references love
What is agape love
Agape love refers to the love people feel for humankind. It entails ideas of fellowship,fraternity, altruism (any theory that puts the need of others before oneself )
- There is no bodily desire entailed but it does not mean it is less intense in emotion
- This love is closely tied with the idea that we must do actual good for people, the virtue of charity, and not simply have nice feelings for them
What is one attraction of situation ethics as a guide for moral decision making
One key attraction of situation ethics is its flexibility. It is able to deal with exceptional situations hence avoiding the legalism that some versions of natural law lead us to. It enables people to keep the spirit of the law without following every letter of it
What is another attraction of situation ethics
Situation ethics is people centred and as such seems much closer to the teachings of Jesus, who consistently put people above the law
What is another positive of situation ethics
Situation ethics enables a decision to be made in each and every situation. Absolutist theories can struggle in situations where there are two conflicting views but situation ethics allows us to choose the lesser of two evils e.g conjoined twins
What is a major problem with situation ethics
Situation ethics doesn’t define what constitutes a situation. Is it the particular circumstance or does it stretch into the future and if so how far does it stretch ?
- An action may seem like a good , most loving solution for the short term but may actually turn out to be the catalyst for a terrible chain of events. When this happens how responsible are you personally ?
e. g if you see a man drowning and then out of love for a fellow human being jump in to the water to save him. A good deed has been done and apparently been done but if in a years time that same man commits a terrorist attack was the action still loving
-Part of this problem stems from situation ethics being a teleological theory and how that requires we must always be able to make predictions about the outcome our action will produce when in reality we do not know wether it will produce the most loving outcome
What issues mighta virtue ethicist raise with situation ethics
-A virtue ethicist may argue that fletcher gives too little weight to character by stressing the outcome and the action so strongly. By concerning himself with just outcomes and actions , he seems to ignore the wider aspects of being a moral person and a acting in the right way for the right motivation
What is another problem raised by situation ethics
Another problem raised by situation ethics is that is it not true that some actions are intrinsically wrong in all circumstances no matter wether they are driven by love or not.
- An example of this provided by Antony o hear is the example of throwing living babies into a bonfire , this seems like an act of unimaginable cruelty - beyond justification by love
- Fletcher would argue that no actions are intrinsically wrong as all of them can be justified by love. He uses the example of adultery and how it could be seen as loving in Mrs Bergemiers case . However it would be questioned by some wether this is adultery in the normal sense
What is another problem with situation ethics
- Fletcher assumes that the difficulty of being certain in some situations leads to a position where we need an alternative to rule based ethics without falling into antinomianism however most of his examples to evidence this are extreme. In reality rules work in most circumstances and then even when they don’t ethicists are usually ready to make exceptions
- Scottish philosopher W.D Ross argued we have prima face duties such as fidelity ,justice and beneficence which should always be followed unless there were overwhelming moral reasons for performing another sort of moral duty. This approach seems more credible than Fletchers ultimate denial of rules
