Situation Ethics Flashcards
What type of love is situation ethics based upon?
Agape (Unconditional love)
What were the 2 types of decision making Joseph Fletcher thought of before creating situation ethics?
Legalism (Very strict) and Antinominalism (No rules)
Who created situation ethics and when?
Joseph Fletcher in 1966
What were the 4 working principles for Situation Ethics?
Pragmatism, Relativism, Positivism and Personalism.
What is Pragmatism?
What you propose must work in practice must work in a given scenario.
What is Relativism?
Relativism is when there are no fixed rules but all decisions revert back to agape.
What is Positivism?
To act in love by faith rather than reason.
What is Personalism?
The desire to put people, not laws first.
What are the six fundamental principles of situation ethics?
No actions are intrinsically right or wrong.
Nothing should be done for reward but should be done for their own sake.
Justice is love at work in the community, love and justice are the same.
Love is practical and not selective. We should show our love to all, even our enemies.
Love is the end, never a means to something else.
Humans have the responsibility of freedom. This gives them the freedom to do the most loving thing in every situation.
Give three strengths of situation ethics.
Any of the following are correct: It can be applied in all situations.
Your focus is on doing the right thing.
It is flexible
It puts people first.
Give three weaknesses of situation ethics.
Any of the following are correct: It has a possibility of causing an unloving situation.
May be against the teachings of the church.
There should be laws as it is vague and lacks clarity.
Individualistic, far from easy as it is vague.
