Teleological Ethics (Situation Ethics)

Question 1

What is the first Fundamentals (Fletcher’s Six fundamentals)

Answer 1

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

Only love is good in and of itself. Actions arent intrinsically good or evil. They are good/evil depending on how much love they produce in their circumstances and consequences. Their goodness comes from love they produce.

“one does not ask what he believes or hopes but what he loves” augustine

Question 2

What is the second Fundamentals (Fletcher’s Six fundamentals)

Answer 2

• “The ultimate norm of Christian descions is love:nothing else”

Fletcher believes jesus replaced jewish torah with love.
The commandmnets are not absolute. Jesus broke them when needed e.g adulterous woman
Law of love for christianity overules all others

Question 3

What is the third Fundamentals (Fletcher’s Six fundamentals)

Answer 3

Love and justice are the same, for justice is love distributed nothing else
* For fletcher love and justice cannot be separated. Agape means standing up for justice.
* “justice is love coping with situations where distribution is called for”
* Archbishop Desmond tutu chaired truth and reconciliation comission investigating the evils of apartheid

Question 4

What is the fourth Fundamentals (Fletcher’s Six fundamentals)

Answer 4

“Love wills the neighbors good whether we like him or not”
It is agapeic (selfless love) there is no desire for personal interest. Not a matter of feeling towards a person, it is a desire for the good for the other person to be done.

Question 5

What is the fifth Fundamentals (Fletcher’s Six fundamentals)

Answer 5

• “only the end justifies the means nothing else”
• right does and can measure nothing but which is a cause of a good result.
  you should consider every action in light of its consequences. the consequence must end in a loving result.

Question 6

What is the sixth Fundamentals (Fletcher’s Six fundamentals)

Answer 6

“loves descions are made situationally;not perscriptively”
* rejected perscriptivity-enforcement of a rule
* jesus acted against the kind of rule based morality that he saw around him.
* whether something is wrong or right depends entirely on the individual situation.
* if an action brings about most love than that is right.

tillich “the demand of the situation over ride deontological rules “princibles are only tools in Gods hands soon to be thrown away as unserviceable.