Situation Ethix Flashcards
Situation ethics is based on?
Agape
Define Agape
Selfless love
Phronesis
Practical Wisdom
Who came up with it?
Joseph Fletcher
The Law of Love
Fletcher started with love.
Looking to Mark 12:28
Stating there is no commandment greater than to love your god, and to love you neighbour.
Fletchers only appropriate response to real ethical dilemmas?
The situational Approach.
Valuing individual freedom, putting ppl first and acknowledging the genuine diversity of circumstances.
Principled relativism
A situationist must respect the law of their community.
Only breaking those laws if they go against the law of love.
Encouraging individuals to reflect on laws, giving them the option of determining their own actions.
Joseph ……….. Stats?
Fletcher was born 1905 New Jersey USA.
Ordained at the Episcopal church of America.
Traditional ethical systems focus on the action and make…..
Absolute rules.
From 18th century onwards, consequentialism is advocated by philosophers.
Arguing that rightness and wrongness are relative to the results and the situation.
Situation ethics is very similar too…
Act Preference utilitarianism.
Philosophers such as Peter Singer promotes ‘best interests’ like Fletcher promoting agape.
Rather than happiness in Util
When asked what the most important commandments were, Jesus said….
‘Love God… and love your neighbour as yourself’
Mark 12:28
Situationalism is rooted in …
The existentialist moral philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre.
The theological voluntaristic approach of Karl Barth.
Both are partially rooted in Kantian thought.
Karl Rahner argued that a person retains a…
‘Sphere of individual morality’
Over which the church cannot ex cerci seems authority.
For Christians, acting on love must be…
Non-preferential.
Consistent.
Love God with heart, mind, body and strength.
This is Christian approach, to which fletcher disagrees.
