Situation Ethics

Question 1

Why was Church membership declining?

Answer 1

• World Wars
• Science
• Weakening of family and religious bonds - contraception + media
• Failure of traditional deontological systems such as NML to provide realistic answers to an increasing number of new ethical problems.

Question 2

Is SE a Christian concept?

Answer 2

It was written in a Christian context but has no Christian presuppositions other than Jesus’ ethic of agape.

Question 3

True or False
Fletcher’s approach to ethics is teleological / situational.

Answer 3

True
Morality is not about rules.

Question 4

What is legalism?

Answer 4

A web woven by all major Western religious traditions.
It has rules for everything and even rules for bending the rules.

Question 5

Define casuistry

Answer 5

A process of using rules cleverly in difficult moral situations.

Question 6

What does Fletcher say about legalism?

Answer 6

At some point, even those who are dedicated to moral rules realise that rules are lacking in love so they use casuistry to inject a little love into the system.

Question 7

What is antinomianism?

Answer 7

Those who claim to have special knowledge so that they have no need of laws at all.

Question 8

What does Fletcher say about antinomianism?

Answer 8

This kind of thinking is intellectually irresponsible - anarchic (‘without a rule’).

Question 9

What is situationism?

Answer 9

A middle way between legalism and antinomianism.
Rules should be set aside only when love demands.
Decisions should be made by following the guidelines of situation ethics relative to love.

Question 10

What does Fletcher say about NML?

Answer 10

Agrees that reason is the instrument of moral judgement.
Rejects any idea that moral laws had been revealed by God with the exception of the command to love God by loving one’s neighbour.

Question 11

What are Fletcher’s 4 presuppositions?

Answer 11

Pragmatism, relativism, positivism + personalism.

Question 12

What is pragmatism?

Answer 12

Something that works, so the good is ‘what works’ / what maximises love - what has value.
If it doesn’t work and has no value, then it has no point.

Question 13

What is relativism?

Answer 13

So-called absolute commands become relative to situations.
Only love is constant - everything else is a variable.
Laws are abstract, whereas situations are concrete - they are the reality.

Question 14

What is positivism?

Answer 14

Ethical norms are not rational - they are held as an act of judgement and of faith.
‘God is love’ - a choice - it is unverifiable by any kind of external test.
Faith has to come first.

Question 15

What is personalism?

Answer 15

Puts people at the centre of concern and not things - it is immoral to love things and not people.
People are to be loved, not rules.
Real existence lies in personal relationships.

Question 16

What does Fletcher say the 4 theories about conscience are?

Answer 16

1. It is an innate faculty.
2. It is the guidance by the Holy Spirit / an angel / some other entity.
3. It is the internalised values of society.
4. Conscience is reason making moral judgements.

Question 17

What does Fletcher think the conscience is?

Answer 17

It is prospective, not retrospective - it is choosing what love demands in the present situation.
It is not something we have, it is something we do when we are deciding and calculating how love is best served in a situation.

Question 18

Explain F’s proposition that ‘love only is always good’.

Answer 18

The only intrinsically good thing is love.
Only in God does love have real existence.
With humans, love is only a predicate - it is not objectively real.
Love is the only principle that is good and right and right in every situation.

Question 19

Explain F’s proposition that ‘love is the only norm’.

Answer 19

Love replaces law - it employs law when it seems worthwhile, otherwise love can break any of the Commandments.
Law minimises what we have to do, so people hide behind the letter of the law to escape the higher demands of the spirit of the law.

Question 20

Explain F’s proposition that ‘love and justice are the same’.

Answer 20

Love in society has to be calculating, careful, prudent, distributive in caring for all - that is justice.
Justice is the ‘many sidedness’ of love.
Justice is nothing more than love working out its problems.

Question 21

Explain F’s proposition that ‘love is not liking’.

Answer 21

Love is not sentimental - love based on emotions like sympathy and affection amounts of self-love.
Love is conative - you should will yourself to promote other people’s well-being.

Question 22

Explain F’s proposition that ‘love justifies its means’.

Answer 22

Unless some action has an end or purpose, any action we take is literally meaningless and random.
The means has to be selected with the greatest care.
Love has to weigh relative values.
We cannot refuse to do a deed which has a mainly good end just because it entails some evil.

Question 23

Explain F’s proposition that ‘love decides there and then’.

Answer 23

People often want an ethical system to lean on - they want the security of rules but morality has grey areas.
People sit behind ideologies to protect themselves - abandons freedom and morality.

Question 24

What are F’s warnings against moralism which trivialises morality?

Answer 24

Moralism makes the moral life a matter of petty disciplines.
But it shows little concern for the great issues of love and justice.
It is more concerned with the idea that we are ‘saved’ by being ‘good’ and that we can be saved by following petty, puritanical prohibitions.