Situation Ethics

• Strengths

  • prioritises love so is rational as a part of moral systems
  • flexible and practical, considers external social factors
  • personalistic
  • logical, based on agape
  • simple, you follow a single principle of love
• Weaknesses

  • individualistic, naïve to assume that we have a universal idea of the most loving thing to do
  • it is prepared to accept any action as long as the outcome is supposed to be loving
  • it is difficult to love all
  • not realistic as very extreme, not always obvious of what the most loving thing to do is
• teleological

  focuses on the consequence
• Legalism VS Antinomianism

  Legalism - ethics is a system of laws

  Antinomianism - to have no laws

  Agape - unconditional love, the midpoint between legalism and antinomianism

  
  

  Cons of legalism: 'legalism leads to puritanism, making the rule have a greater dignity than the person' - Fletcher
• 4 Working Principles

  1. pragmatism, seek practical solutions for success
  2. relativism, acceptance based on context
  3. positivism, commitment to God and prioritises love
  4. personalism, human value prioritised
• Real VS Apparent goods

  • real - good action with good consequences, eg. smoking is calming
  • apparent - good action with bad consequences, eg. smoking is unhealthy
  • 'humans never intentionally do bad things' - Aquinas
• 6 Propositions

  eg. 'the ruling norm of Christian decision is love', central to agape

  cons - requires God, is a religious theory
• St. Paul

  'love is patient, love is kind...'

  'love is the fulfilment of the law', we can't break God's laws
• Roman Catholic Church

  situation ethics is too flexible, accepts any action - it goes against God's laws
• Fletcher

  • 'there is only one thing that is always good... regardless of the context, and that only thing is love'
  • 'Justice is love in action'
  • 'the morality of an action depends on the situation'
  • ’the morality of an action depends on the situation’
• RC. Church criticisms

  too flexible, accepts any action (against God’s laws)
• St. Paul

  • “love is patient; love is kind…”
  • “love is the fulfilment of the law”, we can’t break God’s laws
• Abortion

  • situational and relative, eg. case of rape
  • allowed sometimes
• Euthanasia

  allowed due to personalism