Situation Ethics Flashcards
What is the definition of legalism?
Relying too heavily on laws or rules
What is the definition of antinomianism?
Having no rules or laws at all
What are the 2 unhelpful extremes in ethical thought that Fletcher believes situation ethics avoid?
-Legalism
-Antinomianism
What does fletcher mean by legalism?
An over reliance on applying endless rigid rules. The Jewish law of the Old Testament had 613 separate rule. Jesus criticises this approach as it focuses on minor issues and misses the major ideas. He says that the pharisees have a tendency to ‘strain out a gnat but swallow a camel’. Fletcher argues, however, that later Christian thought has returned to a reliance on rules, particularly in the form of natural law
What does Fletcher mean by antinomianism?
It’s literally a rejection of all moral laws (nomos means ‘law in Greek’). Twentieth century philosophy has been affected by existentialism and this has caused a rejection of moral laws and replaced them with the idea that the individual must make their own decisions
What are the four working principles?
- Pragmatism
- Relativism
- Positivism
- Personalism
What is pragmatism?
Pragmatism is a philosophical approach to truth based on the work of American philosophers such as William James and John Dewey. In order to count as true, something must work in practice. Likewise, Fletcher argues that theoretical solutions that don’t lead to positive outcomes are not really suspicious at all. The decision we make must be something that works and produces good outcomes
What is relativism?
The right thing to do is dependent on the context. In ethics we should avoid germs like ‘always’ and ‘never’. Although the principle of love always applies-love is the reason to act- the specifics of how love applies varies between situations
What is positivism?
Unlike natural law which argues that we can look into the world and effectively discover moral rules, situation ethics is based on a positivist approach to law. Laws are things that human beings create; we have to be active in bringing about love by the decisions we make
What is personalism?
Unlike legalistic views , situation ethics is people-centred. Jesus placed people above rules-consider the case of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11). The key to good ethics is to place the good of people at the centre, rather than obedience to rules
What are the six propositions?
- ‘Only one thing is intrinsically food, 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 neighbour good, whether we like him or not’
- ‘Only the end justifies the means, nothing else’
- ‘Love’s decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively’
What 4 words does the Greek language have for love?
-Storge: love based on family connections
-Philia: Close friendship
-Eros: A sexual love (from which we get the word erotic)
-Agape: Charity, unconditional love
Reasons why situation ethics may be seen as a helpful way of making moral decisions?
-A key attraction of situation ethics, as with all relativistic theories, is it’s flexibility. It is able to deal with exceptional situations, hence avoiding the legalism that some versions of natural law may lead us to. It enables people to keep the spirit of the law without being obsessed with the letter of the law.
-Situation ethics enables a decision to be made in each situation. Absolutist theories can struggle with difficult situations where there are two conflicting duties. Situation ethics enables us to choose the lesser of two evils.
-Situation ethics is person-centred and as such seems closer to the teachings of Jesus, who consistently put people above rules
-Love as a principle is hard to object to. If we love others, we will want the best for them. This seems more compassionate than some versions of utilitarianism, which just focus on pleasure and pain.
Reasons why situation ethics may be seen as an unhelpful way of making moral decisions?
-Situation ethics faces the difficulty that, as a relativist theory, it is vague; the suggestion that we should do the most loving thing is not particularly specific or clear
-There are no moral boundaries. Everything could be permitted if the situation was extreme enough. This does not seem right. Some things-for example rape or genocide- are just inherently wrong and no circumstances could ever make them right
-Situation ethics as a teleological theory requires that we are able to make predictions about the outcome that our actions will produce. Yet we do not always know whether what we have done will produce the most loving outcome
-Similarly, it may be difficult to decide where a situation begins and ends. My decision to take a life to save others may be a good short term solution, but may set in motion a chain of events and revenge that lasts for generations. How much am I responsible for at the moment of decision?
What is a key quote about agape?
“The most important one”, answered Jesus, “is this: … ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. There is no commandement greater than these.”
How do we apply love situationally?
-Fletcher sees situation ethics as a midpoint between the two errors of legalism and antinomianism.
-For fletcher, love is the ultimate law. We may have some general principles, which Fletcher calls Sophia (the Greek word for wisdom), but love may mean that we break these
-Fletcher also places importance on the time and situations he uses the word Kairos, one of the two Greek words for time, to refer to a significant time or season.
-In ethics, kairos is the ‘moment or decision’. When applying low, we should consider the Sophia and the kairos, and ask how love can be applied in that specific situation
What are the two case studies that Fletcher uses?
Case 1- Acceptable abortion
Case 2- Truman’s dilemma
What happens in case 1 ‘acceptable abortion’?
-In 1962, a young girl with schizophrenia was raped in a psychiatric hospital by a fellow patient. The victims father charged the hospital with negligence and asked than an abortion be carried out to prevent the unwanted pregnancy
-However, abortion was illegal in America at this time so the hospital staff refused, as abortion could only take place if the girl’s life was in danger. Fletcher argues that this was the wrong decision and that a situationist approach would almost certainly support abortion in this cas as the most loving thing
What happened in case 2 ‘Truman’s dilemma’?
-During the Second World War, in August 1945, American aircraft dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At least 150,000 people were killed and many more would go on to die from radiation burns or related conditions in the years that followed.
-Japan surrendered a few days later. The new Us president, Harry Truman, had only learned of the technology that was available a few months previously , on his inauguration.
-Truman’s inner circle of scientists and military advisers was split on whether it was right to use the atomic bomb to bring the war in Japan to an end.
-Several advisers pointed out that Japanese leaders were blind to the possibility of defeat and that ‘honour’ meant they were likely to continue to fight for years, leading to the possible loss of millions of lives
-Others felt that a demonstration on a nearby uninhabited island would be a better strategy
-It was left to Truman to make the final decision
Reasons why ethical judgments should be based on agape?
-For a religious thinker, agape is an excellent principle and, according to Jesus, sums up the most important commandments
-The principle of agape is useful in helping us know when to accept the general rules (Sophia) and when to break them. It is flexible to different situations
-Agape is a relativist principle but, unlike the pleasure principle of utilitarianism, it does not seem as easy to manipulate. For instance, it is harder to argue that murder or racism can be a loving act even though in extreme circumstances this may bring pleasure to an evil majority
Reasons why ethical judgements should not be based on agape?
-The concept of love represented by agape can be interpreted in various ways. It may for some conjure up charity and compassion, but for others represent a dispassionate wanting of good for others. As such, both the concept and the application to individual situations can produce different results
-One difficulty with agape and the idea of situation ethics in general is that it seems set up to deal with exceptional or difficult cases. But lawyers and philosophers often argue that hard cases make bad laws. Agape may be the right approach at times, but most cases require us to follow the conventional rules
-There may be better principles upon which to base ethics. They may involve pleasure, duty or purpose according to other ethical theories in the specification. Additionally, a religious believer may argue that God directly reveals commands and that a stress on agape may lead a believer away from the revelation
Key quote from Paul about agape in Christian tradition?
‘If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing… and now these three remain:Faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love’ (Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:3,13)
Key quote from John about agape in Christian tradition?
‘Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.’ (1 John 2:9-10)
Reasons why situation ethics is to be seen as a religious ethical theory?
-The ethic is very clearly located in the words of Jesus, who, when asked to sum up the whole of the Jewish law, suggested that only 2 commands are needed: ‘Love God’ and ‘love your neighbour as yourself’
-Jesus’ attitudes to the pharisees (the religious scholars) in the New Testament shows a clear opposition to the legalism of his day. A good religious ethic does not have to be based on hard and fast rules
-The idea that love is the key evidence of genuine religious faith is found in the words of Jesus: By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’ (John 13:34-35) and in the teachings of Augustine
