situation ethics

Question 1

paul tillich

Answer 1

• ‘the law of love is the negation [cancelling out] of the law; it is absolute because it concerns everything concrete.’
• saying love overrides other laws
• e.g. theft –> usually not good bc not loving, but stealing a gun from someone about to shoot themselves would be a loving action

Question 2

william temple

Answer 2

• jesus: ‘thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’
• temple is saying ‘how do we do that?’

Question 3

bishop john robinson

Answer 3

‘there is no one ethical system that can claim to be christian’

Question 4

rudolf bultmann

Answer 4

jesus had no ethics apart from “love thy neighbour as thyself”, which is the ultimate duty.

Question 5

joseph fletcher cab story

Answer 5

• st. louis. cab driver said “I and my father and grandfather before me, and their fathers, have always been straight-ticket Republicans.” friend said, “I assume that means you will vote for Senator So-and-So.” “No,” said the driver, “there are times when a man has to push his principles aside and do the right thing.” [vote Dem]

Question 6

fletcher on words a situationist avoids

Answer 6

“The situationist avoids words like ‘never’ and ‘perfect’ and ‘always’ and ‘complete’ as he avoids the plague, as he avoids ‘absolutely’.”

Question 7

fletcher on love’s decisions

Answer 7

“love’s decisions are made situationally not prescriptively.”

Question 8

4 presumptions of situation ethics

Answer 8

• pragmatism - evaluating action based on success of application. action must work towards love
• relativism - SE is relativistic
• positivism
• personalism