Situation Ethics Flashcards
(19 cards)
What are the 4 working principles and what do they mean ?
Pragmatism - practical – must be something that works and produced good outcomes
Relativism - context/circumstances
Positivism - begins with belief in the reality and the importance of love . according to fletcher – the commitment to a God of love and to love as the main requirement of the ethical life
Personalism - people are the centre of situation ethics not laws
Where was situation ethics rooted
New Testament and references to Jesus setting aside the law or breaking established rules. For fletcher situation ethics was a Christian ethic though many Christians disagreed
What is legalistic ethics
Set of predefined rules and regulations which direct how you should behave. Like the precepts in natural law by aquinas
What is antinomian ethics
The opposite of legalistic ethics. They don’t like any kind of rule,law or principles. Each attempt at moral decision making is unique and follow no patterns or systems
What is situation ethics
Moral actions depend on the situation. They go into a decision with there rules but are prepared to set aside those rules in the situation if love seems better served by doing so. The situationist is more interested in loving people than loving laws. ‘The situationist follows a moral law or violates it according to loves need’ - situation ethics 1966
What is agape
Unconditional love
The love God showed the world when he sent his son to die
What are the 6 propositions
1 ‘only one thing is intrinsically good;namely love: nothing else at all’
2 ‘ the ruling norm of Christian decision is love: nothing else’
3 ‘ love and justice are the same , for justice is love distributed , nothing else’
4 ‘love wills the neighbours good, whether we like him or not’
5 ‘only the end justifies the means; nothing else’
6 ‘love decisions are made situationally not prescriptively’
What are the 4 presuppositions
Sacrificial suicide - take pills to make u live longer but family won’t get life insurance
Justifiable mass killing - Truman + Japan bomb
Patriotic prostitution- sleep with someone to get information for the war and save thousands of lives
Sacrificial adultery- Mrs Bergmeier was in a prisoner of war camp where she could sleep with a guard to get pregnant and go back to her family
Situation ethics is helpful for moral Decision making arguments
It is flexible- avoids legalism that natural law may lead us to. Enables people to have the spirit of law with them being to strict
Enables a decision to be made in each situation - absolutist theories can struggle with difficult situations where there are conflicting duties. Situation ethics allows us to choose the lesser of two evils
Is person centred and seems much closer to the teachings of Jesus who put people above laws
Love as a principle is hard to object to. If we love others we will want the best for them. This seems more compassionate than some versions of utilitarianism which just focuses on pleasure and pain
Situation ethics is not helpful for moral decision making
As a relativist theory it is vague - the suggestion that we should do the most loving thing is not particularly specific or clear
There are no moral boundaries. Everything could be permitted if the situation was extreme enough.this doesn’t seem right as some things such as genocide or rape are just inherently wrong and no circumstances could make them right
As a teleological theory it requires us to make predictions about the outcome that are actions will produce- yet you do not know what u have done will produce the most loving thing
May be difficult to decide where a situation begins and ends - my decision to take a life to save others may set in motion a chain of events
Situation ethics is a religious ethical theory because
The ethic is clearly located in the words of Jesus- ‘love thy neighbour’
Jesus attitude to Pharisees(religious scholars) in the New Testament shows a clear opposition to legalism - puts people above rules
The idea that love is the key evidence of genuine religious faith is found in the words of Jesus ‘by this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another’
Situation ethics is not a religious theory
Rejected by the established church - condemned by pope pious x11
It can be argued that fletchers reading of the words of Jesus is highly selective - Jesus condemns divorce and adultery
Jesus tells his disciples that if they live him they are to obey his commandments which shows there are commandments other then love
Fletchers interpretation of agape as an unconditional wishing the best for our neighbour is not explicitly Christian. In reality there is little difference between situation ethics and utilitarianism
Situation ethics is not too individualistic and subjective
Situation ethics gives responsibility and autonomy in moral decision making thus treating them as adults
It is important that flexibility is retained - it recognises that what is right for one person in a specific situation may not suit other people who are faced with a slightly different situation
Situation ethics is too individualistic and subjective
Views of love differ - couldn’t be applied in society as the individual decision making differs
Situation ethics may be overly optimistic about our capacity to reason clearly and reach moral decisions. - physiologists refer to the phenomena of cognitive dissonance which makes it difficult for us to accept evidence that goes against a deeply held belief.
Theologians like Augustine and Barth would be cautious about our ability to reach good decisions as humans are fallen creatures and this affects our reasoning
Joseph fletcher key quotes
‘Love alone when we’ll served is always right in every situation’, ‘love is the only universal’
The golden rule - love thy neighbour is key in all aspects of religion
What did William temple say
Love is the Supreme virtue of Christianity
Should be the main / predominant Christian impulse
What did paul Tillich say
Love is the ultimate law
What did William Barclay believe
That humans can’t be trusted to make there own moral decisions and would only work ‘if all men were angels’
This is supported by Augustine’s interpretation of humanity - which is fallen.
What did Augustine and Thomas Hobbes both believe
Augustine and Thomas Hobbes both believed that it is in our human nature to be instinctively selfish
