Situation Ethics

• What are the four working presuppositions?

  Pragmatism, relativism, positivism, personalism.
• What is legalistic ethics?

  Has a set of moral rules in books like the Bible. Becomes complex so requires additional laws e.g. ‘murder in self defense’.
• What is antinomian ethics?

  Doing what you want in individual situations, no rules and treats each occasion as unique. Spontaneous and anarchic.
• What is situation ethics?

  The middle ground between legalistic and antinomian ethics. In certain situations, rules and principles can be broken if it is a loving action. It is inspired by Jesus’ gospel message of love (agape).
• What are the six fundamental principles?

  1. Love is the only absolute (it is intrinsically good)
  2. Christian decision making is based on love
  3. Justice is love distributed
  4. Love wants the good for anyone, whoever they are
  5. Only the end justifies the means
  6. Love is acted out situationally not prescriptively
• What is agape?

  Says that love involves doing what is best for someone else. It uses principles and rules but will set them aside if love is better served for the situation.
• Whether SE grants people too much freedom. 

  S-Fletcher & Robinson argue that humanity has matured and are much more civilised than they used to be, which grants them more autonomy which won’t risk the stability of society anymore. Unlike in Medieval times with less-educated people who needed rigid rules who didn’t understand how a rule can be justifiably bent.

  W-William Barclay disagreed & thought situation ethics gives a dangerous amount of freedom & for this to be good & situation ethics to be perfect, love has to be perfect & everyone has to be a saint.
• Whether SE truly represents the ethics of Jesus.

  S-SE fits with Jesus’ ethics as he allowed the breaking of rules (like the sabbath) and said that the greatest commandment was to love your neighbours as yourself. If one command is greater than another, then it implies that it takes priority and thus the lesser rule should be broken if it's the loving thing to do.

  W-Richard Mouw claims it makes no sense to reduce Christian ethics down to 1 command when Jesus made others too, & to follow some commands but not all. Would Jesus have made others if agape is the only one that ultimately matters?
• The Subjectivity Issue.

  S-He doesn’t mean acting based on the feeling of love, but doing the action that promotes a loving outcome. Has the strength of being orientated towards love, without the weakness of unreliable emotion. Agape is a stronger basis than love as it means Christian love (selfless).

  W-Love is subjective as everyone has their own view on what's loving, it's too unstable to base ethical theories on. Some Nazis believed they were doing the loving thing. With agape, C. Hitchens noted that loving your neighbour as yourself is only good, if the way you love yourself is good.
• Strengths at a glance

  • Christian system - consistent with the teaching of Jesus.

  • Flexible relativist system - enables people to make tough decisions.

  • It emphasises love (agape) - surely everyone agrees that’s a good thing.

  • It avoids conflict of duty, as one experiences in absolutist system. Where moral rules collide, situation ethics gives a way of reasoning the conflict; love.
• Weaknesses at a glance

  • Christian system - atheists and those of other faiths might not want to follow the example of Jesus.

  • Unprincipled relativist system - it could allow for almost any action.

  • ‘Love’ is very subjective. People naturally will disagree about what loving behaviour is.

  • It is difficult to predict the future results of actions - making consequentialist decisions based on love unreliable.