situation ethics Flashcards
(26 cards)
Fletcher’s book.
Situation ethics: The New Morality.
William Temple’s quote.
“There is only one ultimate and invariable duty, and its formula is ‘thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’”.
Temple’s comment on agape without action.
“Fatuous bleating.”
Personalism.
Belief all good must be experiences as good by person, not as an abstract.
Legalism.
Approach to morality which reduces moral life to a system of regulations.
Fletcher’s criticism of legalism.
Gives a rule greater dignity than a person.
Antionmianism.
Moral approach that rules and principles should be rejected for personal convictions (linked to anarchism).
Situationism.
Belief in the rule of love applied situationalism.
Four working principles.
- Pragmatism.
- Relativism.
- Positivism.
- Personalism.
Pragmatism.
Seeking practical soultions which achieve success.
Relativism.
Decisions must be made linked to context around each situation.
Positivism.
Conviction that belief in a God of love is supported by logic.
The Six Propositions.
- Only love is intrinsically good.
- Ruling norm of Christian decision is agape.
- Justice is love distrubuted.
- Treating people with love is non-negotiable.
- Only the end justifies the means.
- Loves decisions are made situationally.
What Fletcher’s propositions show in relation to Templels influence.
That Fletcher is more categorical than Temple, as temple did not reduce all things to love.
Fletcher’s criticism of Temple.
Called him ‘timid’ and criticsed his distinction between love and justice.
Christianity and situation ethics.
Fletcher makes many references to Christianity but does not make it a necessary component and when he gives up Christianity he does not give up situation ethics.
John Henry Newman on conscience.
The voice of God.
Aquinas on conscience.
Prudence.
Fletcher on conscience.
A verb which describes our decision to perform an act in a certain way using all surrounding context.
Criticism based on teleological elements.
Troubled with the issues of determining outcomes, posessing necessary skill and having all information, etc.
Criticism of Fletcher.
- Doesnt define a ‘situation’.
- Makes argument for things which are, by definition, wrong acts.
- Ignores motivation and intention in morality.
- Ignores inevitable contemplation of past actions and the benefit of this.
Fletcher’s comment on people with Down syndrome.
“A downs is not a person.”
W.D. Ross on ethics.
We have ‘prima facie’ duties which we only contradict in favour of different moral duties under overwhleming circumstances which demand it.
D.Z. Phillips on morality.
We can not ever be confident that our decisions are completley moral.
