2.2 Situation Ethics - scholars

Question 1

Plato’s ‘Euthyphro Problem’

Answer 1

objection to divine command theory - dilemma of are actions right because god commands them, or does god command them because they are right. accepting god as source of morality means it could change at any time so is arbitrary and concepts of goodness and virtue become vacuous - ‘good’ doesn’t matter, just that god commands what he commands and we obey. accepting god commands actions because they are right means god not omnipotent as he is bound to external standards

Question 2

Pope Pius XII condemnation of situation ethics

Answer 2

accuses Situation Ethics of being a form of existentialism going against Natural Law and God’s will as revealed in scripture - too ‘individualistic’ and ‘subjective’, too readily slips into antinomianism

Question 3

British Council of Churches reaction to situation ethics

Answer 3

viewed moral standards in society as lowering - especially in realm of sexual behaviour - set out to convey a ‘sane and responsible attitude towards love and marriage in the face of the misleading suggestions conveyed by much popular literature, entertainment, and advertising’

Question 4

British Council of Churches’ use of Schofield Report about young people to evidence their negative views to situation ethics / condemnation of media

Answer 4

discusses impact of modern books, tv, periodicals - claiming they weaken family bonds and religious influence, and bring about earlier physical, mental, emotional development

Question 5

Bishop John Robinson’s description of situation ethics

Answer 5

an ‘ethic for man come of age’ - idea that we can be trusted to assess situations and come to decisions via agape rather than blind rule following

Question 6

Bishop John Robinson’s view of God

Answer 6

God is among us as ‘the ground of our being’ - god is of ultimate significance but not a supernatural being who intervenes in the world from the outside / a deus ex machina at the top of a three-storied universe

Question 7

Bishop John Robinson’s view of Christian morality

Answer 7

based on love, not law, as the ‘purposive effort to relate love to a world of relatives through a casuistry obedient to love’ - Christian message can be reduced to teaching of love

Question 8

example of schizophrenic girl in mental hospital in Fletcher’s ‘Situation Ethics’ to demonstrate moral actions should take their contexts into account

Answer 8

• girl raped and becomes pregnant while in hospital, but was denied abortion
• moral action in line with situation ethics would ‘in all likelihood favour abortion for the sake of the patient’s physical and mental health, not only if it were needed to save her life’ and because it is unloving that an ‘unwanted and unintended baby should ever be born’

Question 9

example of the spirit of situation ethics singled out by Fletcher in the foreword of ‘Situation Ethics’

Answer 9

a cab driver and his family had always been Republican - when asked ‘I take it that means you will vote for senator so-and-so?’ he responded ‘no, there are times when a man has to push his principles aside and do the right thing’

Question 10

Fletchers example from ‘The Rainmaker’ to convey the spirit of situation ethics

Answer 10

rainmaker makes love to a lonely spinster girl intending to restore her sense of womanliness - the girl’s brother is outraged and threatens to shoot the Rainmaker but the father stops him ‘Noah, you’re so full of what’s right you can’t see what’s good’

Question 11

Fletcher’s example of Mrs Bergmeier to illustrate the spirit of situation ethics

Answer 11

separated from her family and deported to Nazi concentration camp she committed adultery with a German guard in order to become pregnant and be released and reunited with family

Question 12

William Temple on situation ethics: ‘what acts are right may depend on the circumstances but…

Answer 12

…there is an absolute obligation to will whatever may on each occasion be right’

Question 13

Fletcher’s distinction of agape from philia and eros

Answer 13

philia and eros are selective, exclusive, emotional whereas agape is will, disposition, ‘it is an attitude not a feeling’

Question 14

Fletcher: ‘the new morality is not exactly new, in method or content, its roots lie securely, if not conventionally, in…

Answer 14

…the classical tradition of Western Christian morals’

Question 15

Fletcher: situation ethics is ‘a radical departure from the…

Answer 15

…conventional wisdom and prevailing climate of opinion’

Question 16

Fletcher: ‘situation ethics is not particularly catholic or orthodox or protestant or humanist…

Answer 16

…it extricates us from the odium theologicum’ (theological hatred - anger and bitterness generated by religious controversies)

Question 17

Fletcher: the need for situation ethics to form a coalition with utilitarianism

Answer 17

as it searches seriously for a social policy it must take over from Bentham and Mill the strategic principle of the greatest good for the greatest number

Question 18

Fletcher: situation ethics as a reshaping of utilitarianism

Answer 18

reshapes ‘good’ replacing pleasure principle with agape - hedonic calculus becomes agapeic calculus, promoting greatest amount of neighbour welfare for largest number of neighbours possible

Question 19

Fletcher: concept of duty within situation ethics

Answer 19

allows concept of duty based on external command despite being closer to a teleological theory because one’s ‘duty’ is to seek the goal of the most love possible in every situation, and one’s ‘goal’ is to obey the command to do just that

Question 20

Barclay’s views on the laws of Western Europe

Answer 20

demonstrate wisdom and compassion and are ultimately aimed at providing an environment where people may develop and be happy

Question 21

Richard Dawkins: problem with living agapeic altruistic lifestyle

Answer 21

likely to be taken advantage of - become ‘suckers’ and receive the sucker’s payout: nothing

Question 22

problem with antinomianism as presented by Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov

Answer 22

Christ returns to Earth and is condemned by church leaders for loving humans too much by giving them freedom - freedom will be humanity’s downfall due to the liberty of spontaneity (that they respond to their environment and lack ability to transcend this). To ultimately be happy, humanity just wants to be instructed which laws to follow to receive salvation

Question 23

Harvey Cox: argument that situation ethics is democratic

Answer 23

all people are capable of making decisions based on the ethic of love, therefore no hierarchical system to follow

Question 24

Paul Tillich’s idea of love:

Answer 24

an ontological dimension of the universe - possible in a way which relates to the human ontology

Question 25

American education psychologist John Dewey support of pragmatism

Answer 25

argued children learn through experience and doing things for themselves - 'the more interactions we ascertain the more we know about the object in question'

Question 26

GE Moore: 'right does and can mean nothing but...

Answer 26

...cause of a good result' - no action not justified by its results can be right

Question 27

Dostoevsky in 'The Brothers Karamazov' - why humans require deontological structure to flourish

Answer 27

weak-willed and unable to meet demands of love

Question 28

Bonhoeffer on situationism

Answer 28

the question of good is posed and decided in each unique situation of our lives

Question 29

Augustine's distinction of Christian love

Answer 29

'love with care and then what you will do', NOT 'love with desire and do what you please'

Question 30

Bishop John Robinson's rejection of Church dogma in 'Honest to God'

Answer 30

claims there is no one ethical system that can claim to be Christian, and that man has 'come of age' so no longer needs the authority of the Bible but only requires love

Question 31

Pope John Paul II vs likely situation ethics response to women raped in by Serbian soldiers in Kosovo conflict being given morning after pill by UN

Answer 31

condemned it, holding abortion as killing innocent life and therefore intrinsically evil - situation ethics would consider this action person-centred and pragmatic

Question 32

Barclay: how situation ethics and self-defeating

Answer 32

turns its back on laws and tradition which have since the conversion of Constantine been based on Christian ethos of love

Question 33

Fletcher - idea the Bible situational

Answer 33

prophetic words of Bible never detached from concrete historical situation - not timeless abstract truths, but references to actual situations

Question 34

Tillich - 'theology moves back and forth between two poles...

Answer 34

...the eternal truth of its foundation and the temporal situation in which the eternal truth must be received'

Question 35

Tillich's ideas regarding legalism

Answer 35

principles are only tools in God's hands, soon to be thrown away as unserviceable - demands of situation override deontological rules

Question 36

Tillich: 'the law of love is the ultimate law because...

Answer 36

...it is the negation of law'

Question 37

Tillich: 'the law of love is absolute because...

Answer 37

...it concerns everything concrete... the absolutism of love is its power to go into the concrete situation, to discover what is demanded by the predicament'

Question 38

implication of Tillich's 'love is an ontological dimension of the universe'

Answer 38

it makes sense for Christians to live life in a loving way as God has made this a real possible way of living