situation ethics: the principles

how many principles are there within situation ethics?

11 principles broken into 3 categories

what are the principles categorised into?

1) the boss principle

2) the fundamental principles

3) the working principles

how many fundamental principles are there?

6

how many working principles are there?

4

what is the boss principle?

the boss principle refers to agape, highlighting it as the main and most important principle

how is agape shown as the most important principle in the old testament?

the greek word agape has its origin in the old testament from the hebrew word aheb

what does aheb mean?

an impulsive love towards god and fellow human beings

how is agape shown as the most important principle in the new testament?

jesus argued (matthew 22) the greatest commandments were: love god and your neighbour as you love yourself

how is agape shown as the most important principle in st augustines teachings?

st augustine developed the term agape by stating agape love was the ultimate virtue.

fletcher states ‘augustine was right to make love (agape) he hinge principle upon which all other ‘virtues’ hang’

how is agape shown as the most important principle in c.s lewis’ teachings?

scholar c.s lewis stated that unconditional selfless love was the highest form of love

what are the 6 fundamental principles?

1) love is the only good

2) love is the ruling norm of christianity

3) love equals justice

4) love for all

5) loving ends justify the means

6) love decides situationally

1) love is the only good (only one thing is intrinsically good; namely love):

fletcher argues that love is the only ‘intrinsic good’ in the universe

st paul in the 1 corinthians 13: ‘and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. but the greatest of these is love’

2) love is the ruling norm of christianity (the ruling norm of christian decisions is love):

this is the belief that agape is the main theme in christianity

fletcher gives the example of when jesus set aside rules in favour of love, such as when he spoke to a samaritan woman. jesus broke two rules doing this, speaking to a samaritan and speaking to a woman in public who he has no relation to

3) love equals justice (love and justice are the same):

the idea that agape and justice are effectively the same things: by being fair to others we are demonstrating agape e.g. giving money to charity

fletcher: ‘love and justice are the same, for justice is love distributed, nothing else’

4) love for all (love wills the neighbours good whether we like him or not):

fletcher argues that agape should be showed to everyone including those people who we may consider our enemies. this is because agape is an unconditional form of love.

jesus in matthew 5 argued everyone to: ‘love your enemies’

5) loving ends justify the means (only the end justifies the means):

fletcher states that loving outcomes can justify the action, this is in line with the teleological approach of his theory e.g. stealing to feed your starving family

6) love decides situationally (love‘s decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively)

fletcher pointed out that throughout history, humans have become enslaved by rules. he believed that this was wrong and that in every moral situation the duty of every moral agent would be to do the most loving thing

what are the 4 working principles?

1) pragmatism

2) relativism

3) positivism

4) personalism

1) pragmatism

fletcher argues that moral decisions must be pragmatic (they need to work in practice)

this principle links closely to the 5th fundamental principle ‘loving ends justify the means’. pragmatism can put a limit on this fundamental principle by stating that bad actions can only be justified if the loving consequences are realistically/practically going to occur

2) relativism

the belief that no action is right or wrong in itself. a relativist would not ever say ‘never’ or ‘always’ when faced with a moral dilemma

situation ethics is relativist because it believes that there are no universal moral rights and wrongs. an actions rightness or wrongness depends upon its loving outcome

3) positivism

situation ethic is based on faith and not reason. this is because situation ethics is dependent on people accepting, through faith alone, that agape is from god. fletcher states: ‘the christian understands love in terms of god’

4) personalism

fletcher states that people are more important than religious rules. he claimed that ‘situation ethics puts people at the centre of concern’

what’s the most controversial part of situation ethics?

it claims to be a christian ethic. many theologians deny that situation ethics can call itself a christian ethic e.g. pope pius XII condemned situation ethics and views it as ‘an individualistic ethic designed to justify actions opposed by god.’

this is because situation ethics ignores large aspects of the bible like the 613 commandments of the old testament

how does fletcher defend situation ethics as a christian ethic?

by claiming that the teachings of the two most important people in the new testament (jesus and st paul) support situation ethics

how do the teachings of jesus support situation ethics?

jesus was asked by a jewish man about his views on what the most important commandment was.

jewish people believed all 613 commandments were of equal importance.

jesus claimed that there were 2 commandments that were the most important:

1) love god with all your heart

2) love your neighbour as you love yourself

fletcher believed that loving your neighbour as you love yourself fits with the idea of situation ethics

when jesus was asked about who is classed as a neighbour, jesus told the story of the good samaritan, the significance of this is that everyone is classed as your neighbour. this fits in with the fundamental principle which is love for all.

jesus often set aside rules in favour of love, for example, healing and preaching on the sabbath day

how do the teachings of st paul support situation ethics?

st paul is considered by many theologians, to be the second most important person in the new testament because he was pivotal in the development of early christianity. fletcher argues that st paul’s teachings would also support situation ethics

for example, st paul at one point in a letter to the church in Corinth emphasises the importance of love.

1 Corinthians 13 ends with: ‘and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. but the greatest of these is love’

this clearly illustrates that st paul valued love/agape above all other attributes, this is the same as fletcher’s situation ethics

relativist

no action is considered right or wrong

teleological

in any moral situation, the outcome is the thing that should be judged

consequential

the morality of an action (whether it’s right or wrong) should be based on the consequence of our actions aka the outcome

any ethical situation that results in an outcome that is based on agape is good