2.2 situation ethics

Question 1

What are some social, historical and cultural influences on the development of situation ethics?

Answer 1

• women in the workforce = encouraged feminism
• civil rights movement = led to mass protests for equal rights for black people
• USA-Vietnam war = caused resentment against the US govt and a loss of patriotism
• contraceptive pill = women could control their fertility

Question 2

How did the societal changes impact the development of situation ethics?

Answer 2

people thought that they didn’t need the strict rules of divine command ethics which they saw as outdated

Question 3

Who was John A T Robinson?

Answer 3

A NT scholar who wrote Honest to God in 1963

Question 4

What did Robinson argue in Honest to God?

Answer 4

• he aimed to demythologise God and make religious arguments fit with modern science within the spirit of the Bible
• he tried to change the Christian view on ethics

Question 5

What does Robinson argue is the only moral law we should follow?

Answer 5

agape -> we should consider case by case, and determine what the most loving decision is rather than obey a universal and absolute moral code

Question 6

What did Robinson call situation ethics?

Answer 6

An ethic for a ‘man come of age’

Question 7

What is meant by an ethic for a ‘man come of age’?

Answer 7

• people are rational beings and should be free to make their own moral decisions
• giving humanity the freedom and respect to decide what is right

Question 8

What did Robinson argue that the true message of the NT was?

Answer 8

a message of compassion, acceptance and love
e.g. Mark 12 = most important commandment is to love God and then love others as you love yourself

Question 9

Who was Joseph Fletcher?

Answer 9

an American professor who wrote Situation Ethics in 1966

Question 10

What made Fletcher’s argument more philosophically sound and systematic than Robinson?

Answer 10

The Six Fundamental Principles and Four Presuppositions

Question 11

What are the four presuppositions?

Answer 11

1) Pragmatism
2) Relativism
3) Positivism
4) Personalism

Question 12

What is meant by pragmatism?

Answer 12

an action must work in practice

Question 13

What is meant by relativism?

Answer 13

there are no fixed rules

Question 14

What is meant by positivism?

Answer 14

love is the most important criterion

Question 15

What is meant by personalism?

Answer 15

human beings are more important than rules

Question 16

What is the first fundamental principle?

Answer 16

‘Only one thing is intrinsically good; namely love.’

Question 17

What is the second fundamental principle?

Answer 17

‘The ruling norm of Christian decision is love; nothing else’

Question 18

What is the third fundamental principle?

Answer 18

‘Love and justice are the same, for justice is love distributed, nothing else.’

Question 19

What is the fourth fundamental principle?

Answer 19

‘Love wills the neighbour’s good, whether we like him or not.

Question 20

What is the fifth fundamental principle?

Answer 20

‘Only the end justifies the means, nothing else.’

Question 21

What is the sixth fundamental principle?

Answer 21

‘Love’s decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively.’

Question 22

What does Fletcher use in his book?

Answer 22

both fictional and real examples
e.g. a married German woman with three children is told that she can only be released from a Soviet POW camp if she is pregnant so she asks a camp guard to make her pregnant and her family welcomes her and the baby home.
- in this case adultery is the most loving action

Question 23

Who was William Barclay?

Answer 23

a NT scholar who wrote Ethics in a Permissive Society in 1971

Question 24

What are Barclay’s criticisms of Fletcher’s situationism?

Answer 24

1) Fletcher’s examples are too focused on extraordinary moral deliberations
2) It gives humans a terrifying degree of freedom
3) There are things in the world which are intrinsically good and bad
4) Fails to account for the possibility of sublimation
5) Creates tensions between private morality and public law

Question 25

What are some strengths of situation ethics?

Answer 25

• it’s simple, effective, pragmatic, flexible and practical
• combines the +ves of deontological thinking with consequentialist thinking
• gives humankind moral responsibility unlike DCE
• modelled on the teaching of Jesus

Question 26

What are some weaknesses of situation ethics?

Answer 26

• it’s telological and therefore it is impossible to be unfailingly accurate in making such a calculation
• received a -ve reaction from the church
• Barclay = if there is not enough love then freedom can become cruelty or selfishness
• it can lead to antinomianism
• too individualistic