Situation ethics

Question 1

Fletcher on the morality of an action

Answer 1

“The morality of an action depends on the situation”

Question 2

Joseph Fletcher

Answer 2

• Life: 1905-91
• founded situation ethics in the 1960s
• Book: situation ethic (1963)
• Ethical principles are true to Christianity but still radically different to rigid Christian legalism

Question 3

Legalism

Answer 3

• Prefabricated moral rules and regulations
• Rules are absolute with no flexibility and they must always be adhered to
• Judaism/Christianity use legalist ethics (Biblical commandments)
• Objective

Question 4

Why did Fletcher reject legalism?

Answer 4

• Rules for everything are impractical as we cannot think independently
• We cannot make rules for every circumstance
• Excessive rule making leads to a choking web of laws that are not actually always moral. Ie rules cannot be applied to every situation, and if we made a rule for everything we would have to follow an impractical guidebook to ethics
• Therefore fanatical legalism is rejected by Fletcher

Question 5

Antinomian approach to ethics

Answer 5

• Literally means “against law”
• Spontaneous decision making. Spur of the moment
• Every situation is treated as if unique
• “Anarchic- i.e. without a rule.” - Fletcher

Question 6

Why did Fletcher reject antinomianism?

Answer 6

• No principles

- Too spontaneous therefore you cannot guarantee a moral outcome

Question 7

Situation ethics as the ‘middle way’

Answer 7

• More concerned with love and the people than the rules
• Situationist will enter each situation with the rules/traditions of their tradition to hand
• However they will set aside such rules is love would be better served
• What to do depends on the situation
• Nothing is intrinsically good

Question 8

Fletcher quote on situation ethics as the ‘middle way’

Answer 8

-“The situationist follows a moral law but violates it according to love’s need”

Question 9

Biblical quote supporting situation ethics as a Christian ethical theory

Answer 9

“Christ Jesus…abolished the law with its commandments and legal claims” - New testament (Ephesians)

Question 10

Principles of situation ethics

Answer 10

• Used to guide the situationist in making moral decisions as each situation is unique so may be complicated
• Principles do not direct the course of action but may guide the situationist
• Principles are the “four working principles/four presumptions” and the “six fundamental principles”
• Four working principles are more general presuppositions

Question 11

First fundamental principle

Answer 11

“Only one thing is intrinsically good; namely love: nothing else at all.”

-Actions cannot be intrinsically good, only love can be. But they may be extrinsically good (good if…””)

Question 12

Second fundamental principle

Answer 12

“The ruling norm of Christian decision is love: nothing else.”

• Only love can guide decision making
• Commandments are not absolute, and can be ignored if love would be better served
• E.g. Jesus working on the sabbath, so love could be better served
• Paul: love fulfils the law

Question 13

Third fundamental principle

Answer 13

“Love and justice are the same, for justice is love distributed, nothing else.”

• Justice and love cannot be separated
• Justice may be achieved if love is at work for the entire community
• “Justice is love coping with situations where distribution is called for” -Fletcher

Question 14

Fourth fundamental principle

Answer 14

“Love wills the neighbour’s good, whether we like him or not”

• Love in this sense is not a feeling, but the will towards another person
• Not erotic, but a desire for good
• Selfless and unconditional - Agape love

Question 15

Fifth fundamental principle

Answer 15

“Only the end justifies the means, nothing else.”

• Consequentialist
• End must be the most loving result
• Actions acquire a moral status as a means to an end (the end being love, it is justified)

Question 16

Sixth fundamental principle

Answer 16

“(L)ove’s situations are made situationally, not prescriptively.”

• Opposes rule-based morality
• Jesus distanced himself from Jewish sects who lived under such systems of morality
• Whether something is write or wrong depends on the situation
• If love is served, it is right. Eg adultery is acceptable so long as no one is hurt (themselves, partners or others) though this is hard to judge(?)

Question 17

Fletcher quote in support of the sixth fundamental principle

Answer 17

“Whether any form of sex is good or evil depends on whether love is fully served” - Fletcher

Question 18

Fletcher quote in support of the third fundamental principle

Answer 18

“It (love) uses a shotgun, not a rifle.”

Question 19

Pragmatism

Answer 19

• The proposed action must work, and must work towards the end, which is love
• Common sense, logical, accounts for all aspects to situation
• E.g. Case of conjoined twins Jodie+Mary. Catholic church wanted to let both die, as to kill one would be an evil deed absolutely forbidden by the 10 commandments. Fletcher would have disagreed with this as love would not have best been served by this course of action. Would argue love would be better served by killing one and allowing the other to live.

Question 20

Evaluation of pragmatism

Answer 20

Strength: Pragmatism optimises love, ensuring that the course of action proposed will achieve the best possible result (maximised love)

Weakness: As situation ethics is consequential you can never guarantee that the proposed action will result in the most love

Question 21

Relevatism

Answer 21

• Reject all absolute rules and values
• There are no fixed rules that must always be obeyed
• However, not a free for all. All action must be for the good of love
• Situation ethics “relavitizes the absolute, it does not absolutize the relative”
• “The situationist avoids words life ‘never’ and ‘perfect’ and ‘always’ and ‘complete’ as he avoids the plague, as he avoids ‘absolutely’”

Question 22

Evaluation of relevatism

Answer 22

Strengths: flexible to suit the situation so love may be best served. Also approachable as upbringing/cultural conditioning means people have different values, so this ethical system can be followed by everyone as it is flexible

Weaknesses: Can be individualistic, as rules may be disregarded, possibly for selfish motivation. It may justify any heinous act in the name of love. Hard to imagine an instance where heinous acts would actually serve love

Question 23

Personalism

Answer 23

• People>laws
• People are more sacred than rules or laws, hence why they may be abandoned if love may be better experienced by the people
• Serving people is loving, therefore more loving act will put people first
• “There are no ‘values’ in the sense of inherent goods - value is what happens to something when it happens to be useful to love working for the sake of persons”

Question 24

Evaluation of personalism

Answer 24

Strengths: Protects the people which is loving
Weaknesses: May contradict the fundamental principles “Only the ends justify the means…” - if love is better served can people be protected?

Question 25

Positivism

Answer 25

• Positivism teaches we need not ask “why love?” as it should be accepted that love is the ruling norm out of faith
• Natural positivism: reason deduces faith from human experience and natural phenomena
• But…Theological positivism: based entirely on faith statements, ie from religious texts
• Reason is of limited value as “fundamental ethical principles cannot be proved, so they are decisions, not conclusions”- Daniel D Mills
• “On the basis of what he sees in Christ, he affirms that God is love”

Question 26

Agape love

Answer 26

• Selfless, unconditional, altruistic love towards yourself and your neighbour (all people)
• Christian love
• Shown in Bible with ‘love thy neighbour’, the good samaritan
• Paul: “love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude…rejoices in the truth”

Question 27

Fletcher’s example: Himself make his Quietus Make

Answer 27

• Terminally ill patient
• Pills at $40 per day would give him 3 years
• No pills=dead in six months
• Has life insurance for $100 000 that would be terminated if he lived past next october
• So take pills and live, but have no money to leave to family, or reject them and die?

Question 28

Fletcher’s example: Special Bombing Mission No. 13

Answer 28

• Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs
• 152 000 killed, many more injured to die later
• Ultimately resulted in the surrender of Japan
• Interim Committee aided the President in deciding whether to deploy bombs. It was made up of military advisors, scientists and senior government officials
• Decided that lives saved by ending war outweighed lives destroyed by using it

Question 29

Fletcher’s example: Christian Cloak and Dagger

Answer 29

• Young patriotic woman
• Ongoing war in homeland
• Government believed that it could be disrupted or ended with espionage/blackmail
• She would have to seduce/sleep with enemy spy to initiate blackmail
• Goes against her moral standards, but could save thousands. What should she do?

Question 30

Fletcher’s example: Sacrificial adultery

Answer 30

• Soviets capture Mrs. Bergmeier who is sent to a P.O.W. camp in Ukraine
• Husband captured and is in P.O.W. camp in Wales, sent to Berlin, reunited with children. They need their mother
• Sympathetic guard tells her that her family are alive+well, and she may be freed if she is pregnant
• Mrs. Bergmeier asks guard to impregnate her, he does, she is sent back to Berlin
• Family accept her and the new baby back. Husband accepts she committed adultery out of love, and loves the baby for what it did for them
• They meet a pastor to discuss the morality of the situation