Situation Ethics Flashcards
What are the features of situation ethics
Relativist - insists that rightness/wrongness depends on situation.
Consequentialist - judges righness/wrongness of an act based by the outcome
Teleological features - conceives morality as bound with achieving certain goals/ends.
Situationist rejects appeals to absolute and universal laws and advocates inherently flexible principles (agape love)
Why did fletcher make situation ethics
> wanted to create a consequentialist ethic as a middle way between ‘legalism’ and ‘antinomianism’
Legalism: idea that moral conduct is a matter of following rules.
In christianity they don’t really like it because it’s too rigid and isnt sufficient for salvation. E.g: appealing only to the Ten Commandments. This doesn’t work in practice.
Antinomianism: against/ without law. ( anti nomos = anti law. )
This is more of a Protestant ideology thinking that Christian’s arent bound by biblical laws. Faith alone is what is necessary for salvation. Theory that deliberately eschews laws.
Situationist rejects appeals to absolute and universal laws and advocates inherently flexible principles (agape love)
The boss principle
Agape: The principle
highest form of love founded from God in Christianity.
An unconditional, selfless love.
3Gospel evidence of importance of love
Why does Bible support situation ethics
Romans 13 : “owe no one anything, except love to one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
1 Corinthians : “ Faith, love and hope. But the greatest of these is love.”
John 4: “if you do not know love you do not know god because god is love”
Passages from Bible support situation ethics because it supports the idea that love is superior to any other act.
Divine command theory ( Ten Commandments) is loving in itself
Four presuppositions with quotes
Pragmatism: “ the ‘good’ is what works, what is expedient, what gives satisfaction” . Practicality, its what works
Relativism: “ the situationist avoids words like ‘never, perfect, always, complete’ as he avoids the plague . Everything depends on situation ( relative )
Positivism: “ the Christian does not understand God in terms of love, he understands love in terms of God as seen in Christ.” Take idea of love from Jesus’ example, not human understanding of god.
Personalism: “ situation ethics puts people at centre of concern, not things. Obligation is to people not things, to subjects not objects.”
Pragmatism
“ the ‘good’ is what works, what is expedient, what gives satisfaction” . Practicality, its what works
Relativism
Relativism: “ the situationist avoids words like ‘never, perfect, always, complete’ as he avoids the plague . Everything depends on situation ( relative )
But the one constant factor is: “We are always…commanded to act lovingly, but how to do it depends on our own responsible estimate of the situation”
There may be some situations where committing adultery/lying is the most loving course of action. If this is the case these actions will be morally right in those situations, but only because they are the most loving.
Positivism,
Positivism: “ the Christian does not understand God in terms of love, he understands love in terms of God as seen in Christ.” Take idea of love from Jesus’ example, not human understanding of god.
Personalism
Personalism: “ situation ethics puts people at centre of concern, not things. Obligation is to people not things, to subjects not objects.”
Strength of pragmatism
not biased off subjective emotions.
It states that ethics/religion/science are fallible and always changing, therefore they arent the absolute truth and not the final source of aid. What is true is simply what works and procures the desired outcome.
Strength and weakness of relativism
STRONG: changes for each situation. WEAK: subjective, not universal, problematic.
Rightness/wrongness of an act is dependant on the situation, apart from one factor is that we are alwyas “commanded to act lovingly…how to do it depends on our estimate of the situation.”
Things are morally right only if they are the most loving thing in that situation.
Strength and weakness of positivism
- STRONG: aligns with Christian principles. WEAK: there are non empathetic people, we dont always want to be loving
Posits that agape love is the fundamental principle , offering no rationale for this argument only saying that we must embrace agape love by a leap of faith
strength and weakness of Personalism
- STRONG: people focused. WEAK: acting against the law could be problematic
Makes people rather than objects or principles the centre of ethical concern, as ethical obligations cannot exist without persons and derive all their significance from people.
The six fundamental principles
The six fundamental principles
Love only is always good
Love is the only norm
Love and justice are the same
Love is not liking
Love justifies its means
Love declares there and then
Love only is always good
“Only one thing is intrinsically good, namely love” (a new morality )
NML actions that fulfill primary precepts are perfectly good and against the precepts are completely bad. This principle rejects that as any act can be good if they lead to the most loving outcome.
