Situation Ethics Flashcards
(22 cards)
why was situation ethics made?
Fletcher felt there had to be a middle ground between antinomianism and legalism
who made situation ethics
Fletcher
what is the first pre-supposition
Pragmatism
what is the second pre-supposition
Relativism
what is the third pre-supposition
Positivism
what is the fourth pre-supposition
Personalism
what is pragmatism (1/4)
-something that works
-requires a teleological approach (judged purely based on the outcome)
(a pragmatist focuses on concrete)
what is relativism (2/4)
-rejected that rules couldn’t be broken and were absolute
-situationists avoid words like never, perfect, always and complete
-do not commit adultery etc are only relevant to the situation
-if love is maximised by violating the command the ethical thing to do would be the thing
-laws are abstract, only real situations are concrete
-only love is constant, everything else is variable
what is positivism (3/4)
- ethical norms govern how people should behave
-they are merely conclusions of judgements
-Fletcher compares it to art, music, and literature. People CHOOSE to like it
-cannot quantify ethics by empirical standards (set of guidelines)
-you choose what you like from ethics
what is personalism (4/4)
-one puts PEOPLE at the centre of one’s ethical value system and not things
-legalist: what does the law say
whereas
-situationist: who needs to be most helped
-Fletcher took support from the new testament as follows: Jewish leaders are depicted as rule bound and therefore unloving whereas christian interpretation will put the law aside in order to love more people
what is the first proposition
love only is always good
what is the second proposition
love is the only norm
what is the third proposition
love and justice are the same
what is the fourth proposition
love is not liking
what is the fifth proposition
love justifies its means
what is the sixth proposition
love decided there and then
love only is always good (1/6)
-only love is intrinsically good
-(chrisitian situation ethics: nothing is good or bad in itself, it gains or loses value based on whether it happens to help or hurt a person)
e.g giving money- bad if it is to an alcoholic to buy more drinks, good if it is for a poor man to buy food
-concludes that love is a PREDICATE, it is the outcome of the action not the action itself
love is the only norm (2/6)
-love replaces the law
-he felt SE came to free man from the law
e.g
-Bonhoeffer planned to shoot hitler, he was found out and executed, Fletcher asks if a man was in a plane crash and in immense pain knowing he was going to die would Bonhoeffer shoot him if he asked
-Fletcher says he should kill him as it spreads the most love even though it goes against the law
-he argues the law excuses man from loving his neighbour
-instead of asking what does the law require one should ask how can I spread the most love
love and justice are the same (3/6)
-justice is love distributed
-if society is careful, prudent, and caring for all then it is just
-a just society spreads the most amount of love
-not just about one to one situations, can also work in politics
-Fletcher called justice love using its head
-Fletcher said situation ethics should align with Utilitarianism
-it is a philosophy which argues that an action is right so long as it promotes the greatest amount of happiness
-it is the same idea as SE only it promotes happiness instead of love
-Jeremy Bentham (founder of modern utilitarianism) wrote about pleasure calculus
-pleasure is measured by its intensity, duration and likelihood to rise other pleasures
-Fletcher took this idea and made agapeic calculus
e.g
-Truman made an agapeic calculation which lead to him dropping an atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this killed 200,000 Japanese but led Japan to surrender, ending the war, if not for this roughly 2 million US servicemen would have died in battle
love is not liking (4/6)
-love is not sentimental
-love rooted in affection or sympathy is actually self love
-this is because you choose love which pleases you
-love is a conative, it can be bought by personal will
-one should actively seek the good in others which would ultimately lead to love being displayed
-we must will ourselves to love those that are unlikable
-agape also includes self love as biblical teachings say love thy neighbour as thyself
-if there is a situation e.g a murderer and a victim SE sees protecting the victim as the agapeian choice
love justifies its means (5/6)
-unless an action has an end purpose it has no meaning
-once they have an end purpose that justifies the means
Fletcher’s four step process to justify means:
1. what end do we seek?
2. what mean do we use to obtain it?
3. what motive is behind our act?
4. what are the foreseeable consequences?
e.g
-Gisella Perl killed babies as she delivered them in order to ensure the pregnant women weren’t killed in Auschwitz
