Situation Ethics

Question 1

What are the key ideas of Situation Ethics?

Answer 1

• Love/Agape
• Rejection of Legalism and Antinomianism

Question 2

What are the Four Working Principles?

Answer 2

• Pragmatism
• Relativism
• Positivism
• Personalism

Question 3

What is pragmatism?

Answer 3

States that theories should work in practice in order to be valuable

Question 4

What is relativism?

Answer 4

States the right thing to do is dependent on the context

Question 5

What is positivism?

Answer 5

States we have to be active in decision making and cannot rely on rules

Question 6

What is personalism?

Answer 6

States that people are at the heart of ethics and decision making

Question 7

What are the first two propositions?

Answer 7

1. ‘Only one thing is intrinsically good, namely love’
2. ‘The ruling norm of Christian decision is love, nothing else’

Question 8

What are the middle two propositions?

Answer 8

3. ‘Love and justice are the same, for justice is love distributed’
4. ‘Love wills the neighbour good, whether we like him or not

Question 9

What are the last two propositions?

Answer 9

5. ‘Only the end justifies the means, nothing else’
6. ’ Love’s decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively’

Question 10

What can be thought of as a summary of the ethics of Jesus?

Answer 10

Agape

Question 11

What are the four types of love (Greek)?

Answer 11

• Storge: Family love
• Philia: Close friendship
• Eros: Sexual love
• Agape: Unconditional love

Question 12

Give two reasons why situation ethics can be helpful when making moral decisions.

Answer 12

• Relativistic: it is flexible
• Absolutist theories struggle when duties clash
• Personalist: close to the teachings of Jesus
• Love is hard to object to

Question 13

What is Sophia?

Answer 13

General principles and the Greek word for wisdom

Question 14

Why must we break Sophias?

Answer 14

For love

Question 15

What two case studies did Fletcher use?

Answer 15

• Acceptable abortion, psych ward
• Truman’s dilemma, nuclear bombs

Question 16

Give two examples of situation ethics in Christian tradition.

Answer 16

• Rabbi Hillel - ‘That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour’
• Jesus summarised the law as the requirement to love God and your neighbour.

Question 17

What is the role of the individual?

Answer 17

• The individual makes the decision with no need to consult outside authorities

Question 18

What is the Kairos?

Answer 18

The moment of decision.

Question 19

Give one reason why situation ethics is religious.

Answer 19

Jesus’ attitudes to the Pharisees shows opposition to legalism

Question 20

What is Fletcher’s view on conscience?

Answer 20

• Conscience is not a thing we perceive, it is rather an activity we do
• It refers to the process of deciding what we will do

Question 21

Give two reasons why situation ethics is too subjective and individualistic.

Answer 21

• Views of love differ too much for it to be applied reliably
• Augustine and Barth would be cautious of our ability to reason effectively