Situation Ethics Flashcards
What are the key ideas of Situation Ethics?
- Love/Agape
- Rejection of Legalism and Antinomianism
What are the Four Working Principles?
- Pragmatism
- Relativism
- Positivism
- Personalism
What is pragmatism?
States that theories should work in practice in order to be valuable
What is relativism?
States the right thing to do is dependent on the context
What is positivism?
States we have to be active in decision making and cannot rely on rules
What is personalism?
States that people are at the heart of ethics and decision making
What are the first two propositions?
- ‘Only one thing is intrinsically good, namely love’
- ‘The ruling norm of Christian decision is love, nothing else’
What are the middle two propositions?
- ‘Love and justice are the same, for justice is love distributed’
- ‘Love wills the neighbour good, whether we like him or not
What are the last two propositions?
- ‘Only the end justifies the means, nothing else’
- ’ Love’s decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively’
What can be thought of as a summary of the ethics of Jesus?
Agape
What are the four types of love (Greek)?
- Storge: Family love
- Philia: Close friendship
- Eros: Sexual love
- Agape: Unconditional love
Give two reasons why situation ethics can be helpful when making moral decisions.
- Relativistic: it is flexible
- Absolutist theories struggle when duties clash
- Personalist: close to the teachings of Jesus
- Love is hard to object to
What is Sophia?
General principles and the Greek word for wisdom
Why must we break Sophias?
For love
What two case studies did Fletcher use?
- Acceptable abortion, psych ward
- Truman’s dilemma, nuclear bombs
Give two examples of situation ethics in Christian tradition.
- Rabbi Hillel - ‘That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour’
- Jesus summarised the law as the requirement to love God and your neighbour.
What is the role of the individual?
- The individual makes the decision with no need to consult outside authorities
What is the Kairos?
The moment of decision.
Give one reason why situation ethics is religious.
Jesus’ attitudes to the Pharisees shows opposition to legalism
What is Fletcher’s view on conscience?
- Conscience is not a thing we perceive, it is rather an activity we do
- It refers to the process of deciding what we will do
Give two reasons why situation ethics is too subjective and individualistic.
- Views of love differ too much for it to be applied reliably
- Augustine and Barth would be cautious of our ability to reason effectively
