Situation ethics

Question 1

Agape love

Answer 1

Unconditional love, the only ethical norm in situationsim

Question 2

Pragmatism

Answer 2

Acting , in moral situations in a way that is practical

Question 3

Personalism

Answer 3

Ethics centred on people, rather than laws.

Question 4

Positivism

Answer 4

Some ‘truths’ should be accepted as self-evident.

Question 5

Relativism

Answer 5

God and bad are relative to an individual or community – a rejection of absolute moral standards such as laws

Question 6

Antinomian ethics

Answer 6

Ethics which do not recognise the role of law in morality

Question 7

Legalistic ethics

Answer 7

Ethical decisions based on laws

Question 8

Teleological ethics

Answer 8

Moral goodness is determined by the end or result

Question 9

Six Fundamental Principles

Answer 9

1. Love is the only absolute (it is intrinsically good)
2. Christian decision making is based on love
3. Justice is love distributed
4. Love wants the good for anyone, whoever they are
5. Only the end justifies the means
6. Love is acted out situationally not prescriptivally

Question 10

Strengths of Situation ethics

Answer 10

The key advantage is that it uses rules to provide a framework but allows people to break rules to reflect life’s complexities.

Question 11

Weaknesses of Situation Ethics

Answer 11

It does not provide a clear definition of what love actually is.
Some might say it is too subjective – because decisions have to be made from within the situation. Humans do not have a bird’s eye view on a situation so have difficulty in seeing what the consequences will be.
Agape love is too much to aspire to and may be polluted by a selfish human tendency.
It is human nature to love family more than strangers.
We do not know whose rules to follow.