Situation ethics

• ANTINOMIANISM

  -a theory of ethic that does not recognise the authority of but promotes freedom from external rules, from the greek word meaning lawless
• LEGALISM

  -an approach to ethics that accepts the accepts the absolute nature of established rules and principles
• SITUATION ETHICS

  -a relativist theory of ethics made famous by Joseph Fletcher. Situation ethics is a form of moral relativism, and is a consequentialist and teleological theory
• CONSCIENCE

  -traditionally an internal, intuitive guide to good or bad; fletcher reinterpreted this notion as a description of ethical action

  -FOR FLETCHER, conscience is a verb where you ‘do ethivs’
• AGAPE

  -this is the Greek word for Christian love, known as unconditional love.
• four working principles

  -PRAGMATISM

  -RELATIVISM

  -POSITIVISM

  -PERSONALISM
• PRAGMATISM

  -evaluates theories/beliefs in terms of success of their practice application

  -supported by William James
• RELATIVISM

  -the doctrine that knowledge, truth and morality exist in society.

  -follows Jesus examples

  -there are no fixed rules which must always be obeyed-through love must always be served
• PERSONALISM

  -a theory based on subjective ideas, the quality of being personal

  -‘situation ethics puts people at the centre of concern, not things’

  -aks waht to do to help people the best
• POSITIVISM


  -a philosophical system recognising only can be scientifically verified or capable of proof

  -Christian’s freely choose faith that god is love
• INTRINSICALLY GOOD

  -good-in-itself
• EXTRINSICALLY GOOD

  -it is good but not for its own sake but for the sake of something else
• fletcher divides moral thinking into 3 basic kinds

  -legalistic ethics-a set of defined rules which tells you how to behave

  -antinomian ethics-opposite of legalistic. no law or system at all

  -situation ethics-the morality of an action depends on the situation (ethics based on circumstance and love rather than action and rules)
• fletcher vs AqUnitas

  -believes that life is too complex and rules would always have to change for different events

  -therefore would disagree with aquinas
• fletcher influenced many with situation ethics

  -bultmann- argued Jesus did not sought to establish a new ethical ideology or set of rules

  -barth-argued gods commanding can only be individual and specific, rather than a general rule
• the six propositions

  They exist within the four working principles

  -love is only always good

  -love is the only norm

  -love and justice are the same

  -love is not liking

  -love justifies the means

  -love decideds there and then
• Love only is always good

  -intrinsically good

  -they always form part of causes and effect, so depends in circumstances and consequences

  -love is the only universal thing and our conscience is oblige by it

  -god=love
• love is the only norm

  -‘the ruling norm of Christian decision is love: nothing else’

  -Jesus replaced the Torah with the principle of love

  -commandments are not absolute and love should replace law

  -sometimes it is our duty to break the law if love is better served

  -FLETCHER rejects natural law as there is no universal law held at all times
• love and justice are the same

  -‘love and justice are the same’

  -cannot be separated

  -‘justice is Christian love using its head’
• love is not liking

  -love is not a matter of feeling but attitude

  • a desire for good for another person

  -agape is unconditional
• love justifies the means

  -for flecher, the end must be the most loving result

  -with love as our end goal we can justify any means
• love decides there and then

  -love decided on each situation individeally

  -as long as love is best served then it should be allowed
• Agape

  -fletcher use agape has no basis in Christianity or jesus teaching

  -the Catholic Church has argued that there is little to separate situation ethics from act utilitarianism
• pope pius XII

  -situation takes a pessimistic view of human nature, natural law has high expectations of humanity

  -god does not command the impossible but equally should not be easy to live by the command

  -the church already has rules that are less stringent than those set by Jesus and in the bible
• incomplete view of Jesus

  argued that fletchers reading of Jesus is limited and highly selective

  -Jesus does preach about love and challenges, legalism in his teaching he also applies strict rules
• advantages

  -flexible; moral dilemmas can be very complex and situation ethics can be tailored to any need

  -conflicting duties;it provides us with guidance on how we can weigh up our differing duties

  -personalism: by putting the person at the centre of ethics avoids imposing a will upon people
• criticisms


  -everything is permitted:by precluding the use of the terms ‘never’ and ‘always’, the theory has no clear boudaries

  -what is love?- very subjective

  -too individualistic- john Macquarie claims that it is impossible to apply to a society as a whole-it will end in chaos

  Too extreme -William Barclay claimed that the example used by fletcher were extremely far-fetched and rare

  RULES PLAYED A VITAL ROLE IN PROTECTING PEOPLE FROM SERIOUS HARM

  -more logical to suggest that rules are maintained and adapted should an extreme situations arise
• four working principles CON

  -could be misused

  -some can be hard to apply as some rules can be always wrong nut someone might not be always wrong
• conscience PRO

  -encourage thoughtful moral decision making
• four working principles POS

  -flexible

  -emphasises situation ethics
• conscience CON

  -Freud said that our conscience is just guilt

  -Phillips says that we can never be truely confident that we have done ‘the right thing’
• six proposition CON

  -may conflict with laws

  -subjective
• Conscience

  -he believes that it is a verb rather than a noun- not an actual thing but a word to describe the process of moral decision making
• Key quote

  ‘love is the only universal’

  ’Do everything in love’- St Paul
• Barclay

  -disagrees ‘it provides no laws for everyday life’

  -road laws are here to keep us safe situation ethics would no work if applied
• counter to Jesus

  -even though its based on agape which Jesus taught, that’s not the only thing he taught (10 commandments)- set rules are still good
• Jesus and agape

  -healing on the sabbath- he put everything aside ands went against the rule of resting to heal someone which should always do the most loving thing over rules

  -parable of the Good Samaritan
• Positivism is a weakness

  -as means that atheist may not find SE appealing as it is based upon belief in a god of love
• conscience and the agapeic calculus 


  -it is an active process we engage in, what people do when they try to make moral decisions

  it means using the ‘agapeic calculus‘ to calculate what will maximise love in each situation
• Applications of situation ethics

  -lying- lying may be justified if it for a loving end and love is the ‘only intrinsic good’

  -stealing- the end justifies the meano (feeding a starving child)