Situational ethics

• “The morality of an action depends on the situation” -Fletcher
• What inspired it? Jesus’ gospel message of love or agape and as Rudolf Bultman said Jesus taught no ethics other than “love thy neighbor” which is the ultimate duty and that “God is love”. 
• Situational ethics was first developed by Joseph Fletcher (1905 – 1991) 

  • American professor who founded theory in 1960s 
  • Origins in the radical movements of 1950 – 60s 
  • Involved in long and futile war in Vietnam against communism 
  • Fletcher was opposed to it and wanted to re-established Christian morality of law of love 
  • Pioneer in bioethics and involved in areas of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and cloning 
• According to Fletcher, there are three different ways of making moral decisions: (1)

  • Legalistic ethics (laws)
  • Has a set of moral rules
  • Judaism and Christianity have legalistic traditions
  • Runs into problems - life's complexities require additional rules (e.g. self-defence)
  • Becomes complex and like a textbook morality
• According to Fletcher, there are three different ways to make moral decisions: (2)

  • Antinomian ethics (do what you want)
  • Reverse of legalistic - literally means 'against law'
  • Doesn't really use an ethical system at all
  • Making a moral decisions is a matter of spontaneity and each occasion is unique
  • "They are exactly anarchic" - Fletcher disapproves
• According to Fletcher, there are three different ways of making moral decisions: (3)

  • Situation ethics (evaluate each individual situation)
  • One single rule - the rule of agape
  • This love is not merely an emotion but involves doing what is best for the other person, unconditionally
• “The situationist follows a moral law or violates it according to love’s need” - Fletcher 
• For a situationalist, all moral decisions are hypothetical. They depend on what best serves love. 

   

  For example, they don’t say that ‘giving to charity is a good thing’, they only say that ‘giving to charity is a good thing if...’ or lying is justified if love is better served by it.  

  Situation ethics is sensitive to variety and complexity. It uses principles to illuminate the situation, but not to direct the action. 
• Fletcher divides his principle into two categories: (1)

  • Four working principles 
  • Pragmatism – moral actions must work or achieve some realistic goal 
  • Relativism – there are no fixed law which must always be obeyed 
  • Positivism – first place is given to Christian love, rooted in faith 
  • ‘Christian’ poses problems for atheists or other religions 
  • Personalism – people come first, not rules or ideals 
• Fletcher divides his principle into two categories: (2)

  • Six fundamental principles 
  • Only one thing is intrinsically good: love 
  • The ruling norm of Christian decision is love 
  • Love and justice are the same!!! 
  • Love wills the neighbor's good, whether we like him or not 
  • Only the end justifies the means, nothing else 
  • Kant says ‘do not use people for as a means for an end’ 
  • Love’s decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively 
• During the 1960s, Bishop John Robinson was developing similar views to Fletcher and was supportive of Situation Ethics. Robinson thought that love was at the core of what it means to be Christian, rather than inflexible absolute moral rules. 

   
• “Assertions about God are in the last analysis assertions about love” - Robinson

   
• Bernard Hoose – Proportionalism 

  • Hoose attempted to modify Fletcher’s theory by combining it with elements of Natural Moral Law. He called the resulting theory ‘Proportionalism’ 
  • Hoose gave the maxim: “It is never right to go against a principle unless there is a proportionate reason to justify it.” 
• Strengths of Situational ethics:

  No fixed laws means it is sensitive to variety and complexity 

  Emphasizes love and people come first  

  Consistent with teachings of Jesus and Christianity 

  It avoids conflict with duties as one experiences with absolutists systems  
• Weaknesses of Situational ethics:

  Love is subjective or may not have the right or enough decisions 

  ‘Christian’ makes it exclusive 

  Humanity is flawed – Augustine  

  Unprincipled relativist system – it could allow for any action 

  It is difficult to predict the future results of actions