Situation ethics may be seen as a helpful way of making moral decisions

Question 1

Situation ethics may be seen as an UNhelpful way of making moral decisions

Answer 1

Situation ethics faces the difficulty that, as a relativist theory, it is vague; the suggestion that we should do the most loving thing is not particularly specific or clear.

Question 2

Situation ethics may be seen as an UNhelpful way of making moral decisions

Answer 2

There are no moral boundaries. Everything could be permitted if the situation was extreme enough. This does not seem right. Some things - for example rape or genocide - are just inherently wrong and no circumstances could ever make them right.

Question 3

Situation ethics may be seen as an UNhelpful way of making moral decisions

Answer 3

Situation ethics as a teleological theory requires that we are able to make predictions about the outcome that our actions will produce. Yet we do not always know whether what we have done will produce the most loving outcome.

Question 4

Situation ethics may be seen as an UNhelpful way of making moral decisions

Answer 4

Similarly, it may be difficult to decide where a situation begins and ends. My decision to take a life to save others may be a good short-term solution, but may set in motion a chain of events and revenge that lasts for generations.
How much am I responsible for at the moment of decision?

Question 5

Situation ethics may be seen as an UNhelpful way of making moral decisions

Answer 5

Some critics have objected that situation ethics effectively becomes a Christian version of utilitarianism (see
Chapter 4) that uses agape rather than pleasure and pain.
Fletcher is aware of this point but does not necessarily see this as an objection to his theory.