The Six Fundamental Principles Flashcards
What is The Second Fundamental Principle?
Second proposition
The ruling norm of Christian decision is love: nothing else.
Fletcher believes that Jesus replaced Jewish Torah (laws) (Halakha) with love.
Mark 2: 23-28
- Jesus ate the grain on the day of Sabbath and explained to the Pharisees why he did it.
Jesus also made the decision to heal (work) on the Sabbath thus rejecting the obligations of Sabbath observance.
The commandments are not absolute. Jesus broke them when love demanded it.
Fletcher as a result believes that the law of “Love” for Christianity is not equalled by any other law.
What is the first Fundamental Principle?
“Only one thing is intrinsically good; namely love: nothing else at all.”
Only love is good and of itself. Actions aren’t intrinsically good or evil, they are evil/good depending on how much love they produce.
They are extrinsically good depending on their circumstances and consequences.
Extrinsic- not part of the essential nature, coming out or operating from outside the object.
Their goodness comes from the love they produce.
What is the Third Fundamental Principle.
“Love and justice are the same, for justice is love distributed, nothing else.”
For Fletcher love and justice cannot be separated from each other.
“Justin is Christian love using its head, calculating its duties, obligations, opportunities, resources… justice is love coping with situations where distribution is called for.”
What is the fourth Fundamental Principle?
“Love wills the neighbour’s good, whether we like him or not.”
The love that Fletcher is concerned about isn’t a matter of feeling but towards another person.
It isn’t sentimental or erotic but a desire for the good for the other person to be done.
New Testament- agape love.
Your neighbour is anybody and agape is unconditional; nothing is required in return.
What is the fifth Fundamental Principle?
“Only the end justifies the means, nothing else.”
You should consider every action in result of it consequences.
The consequences of every moral action should be the most loving.
The end must be the most loving result.
When calculating you must consider;
1. The desired end 2. The means available 3. The motive for acting 4. The foreseeable consequences
What is the sixth Fundamental Principle?
Loves decisions are made situationally; not prescriptively.
You should not create a moral law for a situation based on love.
You should use love in each situation even if they situations are similar.
Fletcher says that Jesus reacted against the kind or rule-based morality that he saw around him.
There were Jewish groups that lived within rule-based moral systems but Jesus distanced himself from them.
Whether something is wrong or right depends entirely on the individual situation.
If an action brings about the most love then that action is right.
