situation ethics

• antinominalism - against the law, no laws/no government in restricting behaviour
• personalism, morality is about persons not rules
• positivism, presupposition that love is the only intrinsically good thing
• pragmatism, we should do whatever works in the situation, not what is right or wrong
• relativism, no fixed laws which we must always obey, we must always consider the situation and the person
• one of Fletchers 6 fundamental principles is that only the end justifies the mean, nothing else
• William Barclay created an anthology to criticise Fletchers ideas of SE
• "SE presents us with a terrifying degree of freedom" , B. believes that not all humans should be able to make decisions
• B says "we have been given freewill by god so we can choose between good and evil"
• B says "if there were no rules then people wouldnt know what was right and wrong"
• B says "God has set up these absolutes because he knows they will lead to happiness"
• F. examples are extraordinary meaning they aren't applicable to daily life = not realistic
• "man without love can do damage", not everyones decisions should be made, without empathy, people can make bad decisions
• F says "absolute standards give us security"
• F says "God gave us his word which tells us how to live our lives"
• F says "we need absolute standards so we dont have to think about everything all the time"