2.1B- Situation Ethics Flashcards
(8 cards)
What are Flecther’s 3 approaches to moral thinking?
legalistic- based on fixed laws
antinomian- having no laws at all
situational- looking at th context of the moral problem and adopting the law of doing the most loving thing in that situation
-Fletcher thought that the last approach, situational. provded the best middle path between the others.
-Fletcher was influenced by other theologians such as Barth, Bonhoeffer and Bultmann, who thought that Christian ethics should not depend too heavily on trying to apply biblical laws directly to modern situations but should be flexible in expressing agapeic love.
What is agape love?
-Fletcher thought that agape love should be at the centre of ethics.
-Agape is understood as Christian love which is unconditional and reflects the love of God, this developed in the New Testament.
-Agape demands that people love their neighbours and also their enemies.
-Agape love is self-sacrificing, not self-intrested.
-Fletcher thought that the ‘law of love’ should guide moral decision-making. People should aim to do the most loving thing, and if the consequences of their actions produce the most loving situation then they are doing the right thing.
Fletcher’s six propositions
Fletcher suggested six propositions to consider when making a moral decision:
-The only thing which intrinsically good is agapeic love. Other things are good depending on whether or they produce loving results, but agapeic love is good intrinsically, for its own sake.
-Love is the ruling norm of Christian ethics. Fletcher gave examples of rules broken by Jesus when it was necessary for bringing about loving results.
-Justice is love distributed. Justice is done when people act with love in a rational manner for the benefit of the community.
-Love does not depend on emotional likes and dislikes but is an act of will, a deliberately chosen attitude.
-Love should be the goal of a moral action, and if it is, then the means of getting to that goal are not important.
-Love should considered in the context of each situation as it arises, ‘situationally not prescriptively’. Rules should not be made without the context of the moral situation being a serious consideration.
What are the four working principles of Situation Ethics?
Fletcher used four working ‘rules of thumbs’, in helping determining the right thing to do:
-Pragmatism, this is about practicality in the real world. Rather than following the abstract principles of a philosophy, the pragmatist looks for something which will work in the practical circumstances.
-Relativism, rules are not to be seen as fixed and absolute but can be changed according to the situation.
-Personalism, people matter more than laws. The needs of people should be considered when moral actions are taken.
-Positivism, Situation ethics depends on people having faith that God is love, a ‘theological positivism’. That faith in the importance of love is more important than rules or reason.
Fletcher’s understanding of conscience
In the understanding of Flethcer, conscience:
-does not guide human action
-is not a store of reliable rules to which people can refer
-is not a kind of inner voice with access to divine truth
-is a verb, not a noun
-describes what people do when they are trying to make moral decisions and are weighing things up
Possible strengths of Situation Ethics
-It is relativist, so allows consideration of an individual’s personal circumstances when making moral decisions.
-It does not have problems of being an outdated ethic as society moves on, because it is flexible.
-It could be considered quick and easy as a method of decision-making because instead of considering a range of duites, principles, and outcomes, it simply recommends acting with agapeic love.
-It allows people autonomy by giving them the responsibilty of choosing their own actions without having to obey the rules of others.
-It could be considered to fit well with a person’s Christian’s faith and with the ‘What would Jesus do’ kind of approach to moral decision-making.
Possible weaknesses of Situation ethics
-It is relativist, so does not give clear rules to help people know what to do in all circumstances.
-It can be difficult to apply because it is not always clear what is the most loving thing to do in a situation, just as it is not always clear what Jesus would do.
-It is also not always clear how to work out which people should be considered in the efforts to find a loving action, or what to do if an action would be lovong for one person but at the same time the opposite of loving for another.
-It is relativist and so could be seen to allow people to justify any action they want to do, on the grounds that they thought it would bring about the most loving outcome. No action is ruled out as absolutely immoral and there are no moral rules that cannot be broken.
An additional view on Situation Ethics: C.S. Lewis
-Developed four loves in his book to prove what agape was not :
-Storage
-Philia
-Eros
-Agape
