Teleological Ethics (Situation Ethics)

Question 1

What is the first (Good) 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

“love is not something we are it is something we do”

Question 2

What is the second (Rule) 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.
Jesus illustarted that love is the new covenant (agreement) between God and his people and replaces old religious laws.

“Jesus and paul replaced the precepts of the torah with the living princibles of agape”

Question 3

What is the third (Justice) 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.
* injustices such as a starving child are examples of a lack of love.

Question 4

What is the fourth (All) 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.
Moral agents should act in a loving way to everyone even their enemies

Question 5

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

Answer 5

• “only the end justifies the means nothing else”
  Fletcher rejects the Natural Law idea that the end (outcome) should not be used to justify the means (action). we should judge the outcome (telelolgical approach).
• 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 (Situationally) Fundamentals (Fletcher’s Six fundamentals)

Answer 6

“loves descions are made situationally;not perscriptively”

“moral laws are constantly flouted in practice because they are too rigid to fit the facts of life”

• 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.

Question 7

Describe The first presupposition Pragmatism

Answer 7

• It must be practical and work in each situation/practice
• As a result an ethical theory must have some kind of sucsess criteria: in any situation LOVE is the overridng princible.
• bad actions can only be justified if the loving consequences are realistically/practically going to occur
• Church teaching (dogma) is rejected if not practical.

Question 8

Describe the second working princible relativism

Answer 8

• The belief that no action is right or wrong in itself. no two situations are the same.
• situationist avoids wordslike ‘never’ or ‘always when faced with a moral dilemma.
• there are no universal moral rights and wrongs
• the way in which love can be cariied out may be different frpm one situation to another. however love is the intrinsic good and is able to go into a concrete situation and be applied differently.

“love relativises the absolite it does not absolutise the relative”
Tllich “The absolutism of love is its power to go into the concrete situation”

Question 9

Descibe the third working princible Posivitism

Answer 9

SE is based on faith and not reason, because SE is dependent on people accepting through faith alone that agape is God. Fletcher accets taht he cannot prove agape comes from God you just hve to accept it through faith

Question 10

Describe the fourfth working princible Personalism

Answer 10

Ethics deals primarily with people it is a concern for people rather than things. Flecther argues that “Situation ethics puts people at the centre of concern”.
“love people not princibles or laws!

Question 11

How does Jesus demonstrate agape

Answer 11

An expert in jewish religious law was testing Jesus with some wuestions in hopes to catch him out so he could be prosecuted.
One question he was asked was ‘which is the greatest commandment in the law’
The expert Jewish expected him to answer that all 613 commandments were equally important

Jesus replied that there are only two fundamental commandments: Love God with all your heart, abd “Love your neighbor as yourself”

He tehn told the story of the good samaratin. A jewish man was beaten by robbers the only person who helped him was a samaritan man (whom jewish do not respect). Your neighbor can be anyone even your enemy.

Question 12

How does St Paul demonstrate agape

Answer 12

Considered by many theologicans to be the second most important person in the new testament because he was pivatol in the development of early christianity.
In the corinthians “And now these three remain faith hope and love But the greatest of these is love”

Question 13

Homo sexuality relationships definition:

Answer 13

Homosexual relationships (a term from ancient greek meaning ‘same’ and the latin sexsus meaning ‘sex’ is a romantic attraction sexual attraction or sexual behavior between members of the same sex.

Question 14

Apply Situation Ethics to homosexuality

Answer 14

• Religious laws suggest homosexuality is wrong and an ‘abomination’
• However Joseph Fletcher Situation Ethics states “Love is the ruling norm of christianity”
• Working princible relativism would argue that homosexual relationships are not always wrong or always right (Relatavism or Situationally)
• if homosexual relationships are based around a loving commitment then religiois rules such as in leviticus should be ignored because agape is better served by allowing the relationship.

Question 15

Use the six fundamental princibles and the four working princibles to justify Homosexuality/polygamy

Answer 15

Fundamental princible 2:Love is the ruling norm of Christianity:If the homosexual act was carried out for an agape love outcome/consequence it is acceptable

Working princible 2 relatavism:Homosexual acts can never be considered always right and always wrong. It should be judged based on outcome and how much love the consequences brings

Fundamental prinicble 5 Loving ends justify the means: if the act was done to create selflessly loving (agape) outcomes then it is morally justified.

Working princible 1 pragmatism: if the chances of the relationship producing the most amount of agape are slim then it is not practical and not justified

Question 16

Definition of polyamarous relationships

Answer 16

Polyamorous relationships from the latin term Poly amory poly meaning many and amor meaning love is the practice of relationships involving more than two people with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved

Question 17

Strengths of situation ethics

Answer 17

• Works in postmodern society because situation ethics rejects traditional fixed rules like the commandments of the Bible. “Love is the ruling norm of christianity.
• It is compassionate as it allows you to judge the consequences rather than actions allowing the consideration of individual circumstances.
• Supports human nature as American pscyhologist harry harlow says “The need for love is so overhwelming”
• Easy to follow and is supported by the teachings of Jesus e.g adulterous woman
• Puts people before laws (working princible personalism) people in different societies are different because we are affected by our cultural upbringing therefore it is unjust to judge all people with the same deontological ethical rules.
• Motivates people to change for the better e.g martin luther king

Question 18

Weaknesses of Situation Ethics

Answer 18

• Secularisation does not work in contemporary society because SE claims to be a religious ethic e.g positivistims agape is from God
• Some actions are just wrong
• SE lacks rules and guidelines. modern society is in moral decline. society needs to improve its morality before it can be effective
• Love is a dangerous and complex emotion
• SE ignores biblical rules many popes argue that SE is an exscuse to get away with bad behavior “an individualistic ethic designed to jusify actions opposed by God”
• Not universal

Question 19

Explain how situation ethics is not based on legalism

Answer 19

Legalism is the belief that all human actions should be goverened by rules. There is a rule for every ethical situation.

Fletcher rejects Legalism for two reasons

Because it stops people thinking for themselves all answers to moral dilemmas are written in holy books or reasoned through natural law “choking web of laws”

There are times where legalistic rules are inappropriate to apply in the real world. Fletcher was influenced by author Arthur Miller who argued that legalism was “the immorality of morality” Flectehr believed that Christianity had slipped into using a whole apparatus of prefabricated rules

Question 20

Explain how situation ethics is not based in Antinomianism

Answer 20

Antinomianism: An approach to ethics where there are no rules at all A moral agent would not use an ethical system at all when faced with a moral dilemma. Instead decisions are made in an unguided spontaneous way.

Flectehr rejects antimomianism as an ethical approach because morl agents need some form of ethical guidance otherwise society would be in anarchy.

Question 21

Explain how situation ethics is not based on conscience

Answer 21

Conscience: in a religious sense the conscience is seen as God given intuitibe ethical guide. The internalised Holy spirit will guide the moral agent on what is the most God centred action,

Fletcher rejects this because he claims the conscience is not a noun (thing) but a verb (an action or process) therefore the conscience cannot be God working inside us as He is a thing not a verb. It is just the brains mechanical process of working out moral descions.

“conscience is merely a word for our attempts to make descions”

Question 22

What did Fletcher determine Situation ethics to be based on

Answer 22

SE should be based on the ideal middle gorund between the extremes of legalism and antinomianism. he called this princibiled relativism.
He believed that the middle ground should be that a single guiding princible pointing moral agents in the morally right direction.

Question 23

What is the definition of love according to fletcher

Answer 23

Agape greek for selfless love and has three parts
* Love is directed outwards towards others
* love is given unconditionally it is not dependent on receiving anything back
* Love is given constantly love is given to all

Question 24

How is situation ethics Relatavist, Teleological and Consequential

Answer 24

Relativist:Not universal. No action is right or wrong

Telelogical: focused on the end goal/outcome of the action

Consequential: morality based on consequences of outcome.