situation ethics Flashcards
what are the approaches towards morality
legalism - predefined rules and regulations
antinomiansim - no rules
situationism - morality is situational and and rules can be set aside if this is how agape will be best served.
what are the four principles?
pragmatism
positivism
relativism
personalism
what is agape
unconditional love for the stranger that is self serving and not self rewarding.
john love quote
whoever does not love does not know God because God is love
what are the six propositions
- Love is the only intrinsically good thing
- Agape
- Love and justice are the same
- Love thy neighbour
- Only the end justifies the means
- Decisions are made situationally
what are the propositions for
a basis for moral decision making;
what are the working principles for?
The four working principles are an explanation of how to apply situation ethics to everyday life.
what is positivism?
the belief that love is of great importance and higher power and should lead our moral actions
what is pragmatism?
focuses on the outcome
what is relativism?
do the most loving thing in the situation
what is personalism?
people should be at the centre of our hearts and above the law
strengths of situation ethics
-> people would generally agree love is a positive thing
-> relative - doesn’t completely reject laws but doesn’t have them at the centre of the theory it depends on the situation
-> acknowledges that the law can be wrong scchmermund and the leadership principle- bonhoeffer and augustine
-> we would agree in society that considering the consequences of your actions is a smart idea
weaknesses of situation ethics?
-> “if men were angels, then situation ethics would be the perfect ethics” Bishop Barclay, however, they’re not angels and therefore cannot be trusted to follow love honestly.
-> Augustine we are ontologically sinful
-> people have different interpretations of what love is even though fletcher wanted to make the love he was discussing clear it is inevitable for there to be some misconceptions.
-> William Barclay argued to “discard law is to discard experience”
-> it can allow evil in the name of love
-> discarding rules is not practical for modern day GB since we have had them for generations. JSM, we need rules as a guideline
-> St Paul “love is the fulfilling of the law”
what did fletcher think human conscience was?
he believed that human conscience rather than being a noun was a verb, it is something we do
