Situation Ethics Flashcards
What is situation ethics based on
Love (agape)
What was Josef Fletchers view on love
It was what morality should serve
Someone making a moral decision should set aside the rules if love served the situation better
What are the six fundamental principles
Only one ‘thing’ is intrinsically good; namely, love, nothing else at all
The ruling norm of Christian decision is love, nothing else
Love and justice are the same, for justice is love distributed, nothing else
Love wills the neighbor’s good when we like him or not
Only the ends justify the means, nothing else
Love’s decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively
What does “Love’s decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively” mean?
Ethical decisions are not cut and dried most of the time and they exist in a grey area. No decision can be taken before considering the situation.
What does “Love and justice are the same, for justice is love distributed, nothing else” mean ?
To act justly or fairly is precisely to act in love. “Love is justice, justice is love”
Why do we need the presuppositions
To guide us how to think when coming to a solution
What are the four working presuppositions ?
Pragmatism
Relativism
Positivism
Conscience
How does Fletcher see relativism
He sees it in the behaviour of Jesus in rejecting the rules in ways that were relative to love
E.g. healing the sick on the sabbath
What is meant by personalism
The situationist puts people first and at the centre of concern
What is meant by conscience
It is just a word that describes our attempts to make proper decisions
It doesn’t simply review our actions but is the process of making the decision
Do situation ethics provide a helpful method of moral decision making?
Argument for
consistent with the Gospel. This means it goes directly with the teachings of Jesus’ lesson of choosing love over the law. This shows that Jesus puts God and his faith above everything else even the law. Due to these Situation Ethics is seen as being consistent with the New Testament. So it is helpful FOR CHRISTIANS
flexible and practical
situation ethics approach can take the best option from two bad situations. This is good because a legalist wouldn’t be able to do this. An example of this is in practice is if a murderer came to you and asked you where his next victim was, a legalist would be bound to tell the truth because the act of lying is wrong whereas the situtionalist would be able do the most loving thing in that particular circumstance.
Do situation ethics provide a helpful method of moral decision making?
Argument against
Difficult theory to use with no simple list to follow - people may need more help in complex situations then situation ethics can provide
it’s subjective. This means that it isn’t as valid because it relies on one person’s perception of a certain situation. The main question which is raised is how can an individual decide which is the most loving action?
people may pollute unconditional love with selfish human tendencies ( parents wouldn’t give the same amount of love to a stranger than their own children.)
it will accept anything. After mass killings murders and genocide being committed recently. It creates the problem of what people believe the most loving end could justify things what are really wrong. An example is Hitler and the Jews. Hitler caused the execution of 6 million Jews for a better Germany. Hitler felt he was doing a loving thing for Germany and didn’t think about the Jews. Even though genocide would always be considered as wrong.
How is situation ethics being to subjective a problem
we could do an unloving thing and justify it because we think it will cause a loving thing at the end, when really the loving thing will never happen.
Weaknesses of situation ethics
He focuses on “love your neighbour” but ignores the bit that follows (“love your God”) which would also require him to follow all of God’s rules equally -why focus on this one?
Predict the future - consequentialist theories, this particular love calculations impossible
No Christian support - rejected by a number of Christians for being too relative
Laws are needed in society to maintain balance and to stop murders from happening because people “thought” a loving outcome would come from it
What is William Barclays criticism of situation ethics and the meaning behind it
“The situationists have a kind of phobia of law, but the Lesson of experience is that we need a certain amount of law, being the kind of people we are”
He means that humans do need law as they cannot be trusted to have a perfect perception of what love is and so this is where mistakes can happen and wrongdoings can be justified
