Situation Ethics Flashcards
Legalism, Antinomianism and SE
-Legalism- people need fixed rules to follow
-Antinomianism- no rules or laws to follow at all
-Fletcher claimed SE was a middle ground which avoids the problems of each extreme. SE takes each situation into account, gives people clear guidance and avoids moral chaos
Agape:
-Agape is the one absolute principle which should be applied to all situations- the action that is good is the one which has the most loving consequence
-Agape is drawn from Jesus saying that the greatest commandment is to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’.
-All religious rules, principles and commandments only have value if they enable agape
The four working principles:
- Pragmatism- actions take situation into account
- Relativism- action is right/ wrong relative to agape
- Personalism- people are more important than rules
- Positivism- ethics should be based on faith rather than reason- faith in Jesus’ command to love
The six propositions:
- Justice is love distributed
- Overruling norm of Christian decision making is love
- Neighbourly- love wills the neighbours good whether we like them or not
- Ends justify the means
- Situational
- Intrinsically good- love is always unconditional
Fletcher’s view on the conscience
-A verb, not a noun. It is the process of figuring out which action will maximise agape in each situation. Rejects the traditional view of it being part of our mind which tells us what is right/ wrong
SE grants too much freedom? NO
-Fletcher, Robinson+ Bonhoeffer- society has ‘come of age’- more mature than people in medieval times who needed fixed rules to follow
-People are more civilised, so they are able to increase love when using autonomy
SE grants too much freedom? YES
- Barclay- gives moral agents a dangerous amount of freedom. Love can easily become selfish
-Augustine- human nature is corrupt, can’t do the right thing by ourselves. Stanford prison experiment shows that having power can be corrupting, and giving people full autonomy of what to choose gives them power
Sola Scriptura
-Love may be central to the Bible, but it isn’t the only element of Christian ethics- not truly Christian because it ignores most of the Bible
-Luther’s sola scriptura argues that the Bible is the source of moral principles, not agape
-Craig- God’s justice is just as important as his love
SE fits with Jesus’ ethics? YES
-Jesus overturned rules (Moses’ eye for an eye), allowed the breaking of rules (the sabbath), said the greatest commandment was to love your neighbours as yourself
-Jesus goes against legalism in ethics and was an example of someone who took a situationist approach.
SE fits with Jesus’ ethics? NO
-Mouw- makes no sense to reduce Christian ethics to only one of Jesus’ commandments when he made other commands too.
-Pope Pius XII- Jesus frequently spoke of the importance of following all the commandments, so Fletcher disregards those teachings of Jesus
-Why would Jesus have made other commandments if agape was the only one that matters?
SE too subjective?
-It is hard to see how acting on love can ever be morally wrong
-Love is subjective- everyone has a different perspective of what is loving. Some of the Nazis thought they were doing a loving thing
-Love might be subjective, but agape isn’t. Agape means selfless love for your neighbour- the Nazis weren’t engaging in selfless love for their neighbour, so agape isn’t as subjective as love
-Hitchens- loving your neighbour as yourself is only good if the way you love yourself is good, so agape is still subjective
SE leads to Antinomianism?
-Flexible when taking situations into account. Approach to conscience also enables this flexibility- doesn’t reveal strict rules.
-Pope Pius XII- Natural law is more suitable than SE- primary precepts aren’t rules, they are applied to situations and normally sinful actions are justified if double effect justifies it.
-Fletcher goes too far with his flexibility. Pragmatism and relativism are wrong, and they threaten the stability of society- lessening religious laws can cause society to fall apart.
-In modern day Northern Europe, quality of life is acted on rather than sanctity of life. Strict religious principles aren’t required for social order
