Situation Ethics

Question 1

Why is situation ethics a product of its time?

Answer 1

The 60s were defined by radical social movements aimed at overthrowing traditional ways of life which were seen as oppressive.

Question 2

What is Joseph Fletchers approach?

Answer 2

He rejected the traditional approach to Christian ethics of strict adherence to moral laws. Instead he attempted a reduction of Christian ethics to what many would agree is the overarching theme of Jesus’ ethics: love.

Question 3

What is legalism?

Answer 3

People require fixed rules to follow, without taking the situation into account, yet providing clear guidance.

Question 4

What is antinomianism?

Answer 4

There are no rules or laws to follow at all, leading to moral chaos, yet taking the situation into account.

Question 5

How is Situation ethics a middle ground between legalism and antinomianism?

Answer 5

Avoids the problems of each extreme while retaining the benefit of each. It does this by claiming that love is the one single absolute principle which should be applied to all situations.

Question 6

What is agape?

Answer 6

It is drawn from Jesus saying that the ‘greatest commandment’ is to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’.

Question 7

What are the four working principles: relativism?

Answer 7

Fletcher claimed his theory “relativizes the absolute, it does not absolutize the relative”. Relativizing the absolute means that absolutes like “Do not kill” become relative to love.

Question 8

What are the four working principle: pragmatism?

Answer 8

An action must be calibrated to the reality of the situation.

Question 9

What are the four working principles: personalism?

Answer 9

Situation ethics puts people above rules. As Jesus said “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath”.

Question 10

What are the four working principles: positivism?

Answer 10

Fletcher thought ethics had to begin with faith in love because no rational answer can be given for why someone shouldn’t love as it is a matter of faith in Jesus’ command to love your neighbour as yourself.

Question 11

What does ‘only love is intrinsically good’, mean?

Answer 11

Everything else has conditional value depending on whether it helps or hurts people, but love is always unconditionally and therefore intrinsically good.

Question 12

What does ‘the ruling norm of Christian decision is love; nothing else’, mean?

Answer 12

The centre of Christianity is the principle of love.

Question 13

What does ‘love and justice are the same, for justice is love distributed, nothing else’, mean?

Answer 13

Fletcher thought that maximising agape is the only ethical goal. Many think that justice is an ethical goal, so Fletcher here is explaining that justice actually reduces to love.

Question 14

What does ‘love wills the neighbour’s good whether we like him or not’, mean?

Answer 14

Jesus called on us to love our neighbour no matter who they are, which includes people we don’t like.

Question 14

What does ‘only the end justifies the means; nothing else’, mean?

Answer 14

The is Fletcher’s consequentialism. If the consequence of an action is the most loving possible then it is good, it doesn’t matter what the action is.

Question 15

What does ‘love decides there and then’, mean?

Answer 15

When we are faced with a moral choice we have to decide there and then in that situation.

Question 16

How does Fletcher’s view on conscience differ from other theories?

Answer 16

He disagreed with the traditional view that conscience is an internal moral compass or mental ability to intuitively know what is right or wrong.

Question 17

How was Fletcher and Robinson influenced by Bonhoeffer?

Answer 17

Humanity has ‘come of age’, meaning become more mature. Now people are more civilised, to the point that granting them more autonomy will increase love without risking the stability of society.

Question 18

How does William Barclay disagree with Fletcher and Robinson on humanity’s coming of age?

Answer 18

He argues that situation ethics gives moral agents a dangerous amount of freedom, ‘freedom can become selfishness and even cruelty’. If everyone was a saint, then situation ethics would be perfect. Barclay argues mankind has not yet come of age and so ‘still needs the crutch and protection of law’.

Question 19

How does legalism have worse downsides in comparison to situation ethics?

Answer 19

Some would abuse the autonomy situation ethics grants them. However, that is arguably not as bad compared with the dangers of legalistic morality, which is inflexible and outdated. Eg, euthanaisa.

Question 20

How is freedom corrupting?

Answer 20

Relevant is psychology like the Stanford prison experiment. It is a well-known feature of human psychology that power is corrupting. The freedom to decide what is good or bad without external supervision of legalistic laws grants humans more power and thereby corrupts them.

Question 21

What is a strength to Fletcher making the Bible more liberal?

Answer 21

The bible is difficult to interpret, or know the right interpretation. They could interpret the Bible or take it literally, but it is impossible to know which interpretation is correct.

Question 22

Why should the Bible not be taken as a ‘legalistic rule book’?

Answer 22

This makes Fletcher’s approach to the Bible an example of the liberal view of inspiration; that the Bible is not the perfect word of God. So, although the Bible states that many things are wrong, Fletcher doesn’t think a Christian should view those as unbreakable rules.

Question 23

What is a weakness to Fletcher centering the Bible around love?

Answer 23

It is not the only element of Biblical Christian ethics. Fletcher faces the criticism that his theory cannot be considered properly Christian, since it seems to only follow the command to love, ignoring most of the teachings in the Bible.

Question 24

What does Martin Luther argue about the Bible in opposition to Fletchers centering around love?

Answer 24

Martin Luther’s theory of ‘sola scriptura’ argues that the ‘Bible alone’ is the source of moral authority, not the autonomous individual deciding the demands of agape in their situation.

Question 25

What is a weakness to love being at the centre of ethics?

Answer 25

Fletcher has diluted Christian ethics into just loving and wanting the best for others. That is not distinctive from secular morality or just general well-wishing.

Question 26

How does Situation ethics also suffer the subjectivity issue?

Answer 26

The themes and paradigms of the bible are also a matter of subjective interpretation. Situation ethics therefore fails to provide a convincing approach to Christian ethics and ends up sliding into antinomianism due to being subjective.

Question 27

How does SItuation ethics fit with the ethics of Jesus?

Answer 27

Jesus overturned rules (like that of Moses’ eye for an eye & life for a life), allowed the breaking of rules (like the sabbath) and said that the greatest commandment was to love your neighbours as yourself.
Fletcher’s situation ethics is a reasonable interpretation of what Jesus said.

Question 28

What is Richard Mouw’s argument?

Answer 28

It makes no sense to reduce Christian ethics to only one of Jesus’ commands when Jesus made other commands too. It makes no logical sense to follow some of Jesus’ commands but not all of them. We either regard him as a source of moral authority or we don’t.

Question 29

How did Pope Pius XII criticise situation ethics?

Answer 29

Christ himself frequently spoke of the importance of following all the commandments. (Matthew 19:17 & John 14:15). Fletcher is therefore unwittingly attacking Christ. Fletcher claims the ends justifies the means, but Romans 3:8 condemns that.

Question 30

What else may Jesus have meant when referring to love as the greatest commandment?

Answer 30

Such as only that it was the one which would be relevant to the most number of situations.

Question 31

What is the subjectivity of love?

Answer 31

Agape is defined as loving your neighbour as yourself. This is less subjective than love, because it requires symmetry in the way you love others and yourself. You can’t just go loving anyone in limitless ways, it has to be the way you love yourself, so it’s less subjective.

Question 32

How does Fletcher’s view of the conscience allow for flexibility?

Answer 32

It doesn’t reveal strict rules or precepts but is simply the way that an individual figures out what has a loving outcome in their situation.

Question 33

How does Situation ethics threaten the stability of society?

Answer 33

Catholics believe in ethical absolutes such as the sanctity of life. No matter what the pragmatic situation is, the value of life cannot be relativized. Fletcher’s working principles of pragmatism and relativism are wrong. The stability of society is threatened by relativistic ethical theories like Fletcher’s.

Question 34

Why is the social order argument incorrect?

Answer 34

Northern Europe has the most atheistic countries where quality of life is acted on instead of sanctity of life. Those countries are nonetheless some of the most stable and happy in the world.

Question 35

How id the Catholic argument of social stability successful?

Answer 35

This Catholic argument is successful because it is logical that if a culture devalues life than that could threaten social stability.

Question 36

How does God’s design defend the Catholic argument?

Answer 36

God designed us to live a certain way which involves preserving human life. If we go against that then our society will break down because living contrary to God’s design is unnatural and leads to immorality and social disorder. Fletcher’s overly individualistic situationism thus leads to antinomianism.