Situation Ethics

Add evaluations of six propositions and four working principles

When was situation ethics proposed

1960s

Justice

Fletcher believed justice was tough love applied to the world

Pragmatism

Acting in moral situations in a way that is practical.

Based on the work of William James and John Dewey.

The decisions we make must be something that works and produces a good outcome.

Positivism

fletcher posits love as good as he proposes it as good without demonstrating why this is the case

Personalism

Ethics based on the person rather than objective laws

Legalistic Ethics

Moral decision making that is law based

Teleological ethics

Ethics based on the outcome

Relativism

Rejection or absolute moral standards. Fletcher believed that good and bad are relative to love

Consciousness

Fletcher believed that consciousness was a function: the action of making a moral decision

Agape

unconditional love, the only ethical norm in situation ethic

Extrinsically good

good defined by the outcome rather that by the act itself

antinomian Ethics

role of law is rejecting in morality.

what are the 4 working principles

pragmatism relivatiosm positivism personalism

what are the six propositions

working proposition that give rise to the theory of situation ethics and its approach to moral decision making.

1. “only one thing is intrinsically good namely love nothing else at all”. Love is the one regulatory principle in Christian Ethics.

2. “Ruling norm of Christian Decision is love, nothing else”

3. “love and justice are the same for justice is love distributed and nothing else”

4. “love wills the neighbours good whether we like him or not”

5. “only the end justifies the means, nothing else”

6. “love’s decisions are made situationally not prescriptively”

explain fletchers example of sacrificial adultery in “Situation ethics an new morality”

A woman in a war camp commits adultery to become pregnant and be released to return to her family.

suggests that legalism can be harmful.

is adultery every right (deontology vs situation) - Aquinas argues that adultery is by definition wrong, situation ethics is allowing for a sinful act to be right.

explain fletchers example of sacrificial euthaniasia in “Situation ethics a new morality”

a man is offered a pill to keep him alive however it would only last still his medical insurance runs out. If he is kept alive his family would not benefit from his death.

suggests situation ethics is a teleological ethical theory. What makes an action right is that it will lead to a good outcome. In this case it is pragmatic approach to refuse treatment.

evaluate agape

for :

• Ruling norm of Christian ethics

  • Fits with Jesus teaching in the NT Matthew 22(Greatest commandment)

  • Fits with Jesus criticism of the Pharasees ‘sabbath made for man’

• Relitavist principle that is not as easily manipulated like pleasure in utilitarianism.

  • harder to argue that racism can be a loving act but racism can bring the most joy to oppressors rather than victims in marginalised communities. solves the issue of tyranny of the majority.

• Useful in helping use to know when to accept the generals rules and when to break them.

• love is justice distributed

  • provides a basis for social justice

  • demands practical action

against:

• vagueness of the most loving option

  • inconsistent and difficult to calculate may lead to bad overall outcomes (rule breaking in the pandemic)

  • who is included in love thy neighbour? hitler?

  • Barclay: risk of individualism at expense of community, moral decisions are based on personal judgment rather than shared moral principles

  • extraordinary examples: agape is fit for these cases but generalising is wrong as hard cases make bad laws. most cases would require us to follow convention.

• better principles exist

  • duty, pleasure

• strays away from revelation

  • God actively reveals commands, stress o agape may lead believer away from revelation

is situation ethics really a religious ethic

for:

• ruling norm of Christian ethics

  • Fits with Jesus teaching in the NT Matthew 22(Greatest commandment)

  • Fits with Jesus criticism of the Pharasees ‘sabbath made for man’

  • thou shall love thy neighbour as thy self is describe as invariable duty by Archbishop William Temple.

against:

• condemned by the Catholic Church as it opposed natural law the “moral theology of the Catholic Church”(Peter singer).

• what fletcher declares to be situationally wrong is biblically always wrong i.e adultery,

• radical emphasis on love as the only necessary principle “nothing else” doesn’t align with christian school of thought of multiple commandments

• same as utilitarianism. fletcher suggests in his book “situation ethics a new morality” that situationism is Christian utilitarianism. Paradox?

is situation ethics too individualistic and subjective ?

for:

• humans are not responsible enough

  • Barclay: men are not saints

  • gives responsibility and authority to moral decision making

  • Pope Pius XII: contradict eternal and divine law by giving room for individualistc and subjects approach

• agape is vague

  • unquantifiable an unempirical

  • inconsistent and difficult to calculate may lead to bad overall outcomes (rule breaking in the pandemic)

  • who is included in love thy neighbour? hitler?

  • Barclay: risk of individualism at expense of community, moral decisions are based on personal judgment rather than shared moral principles

  • extraordinary examples: agape is fit for these cases but generalising is wrong as hard cases make bad laws. most cases would require us to follow convention.

• cognitive dissonance

  • too optimistic about our ability to reason clearly

  • difficulty to accept evidence that goes against our beliefs

against:

• important to have flexibility

• Ruling norm agape

• 5th proposition moral decision making cannot be individualistic and subjective since the end has to be love

• allow ownership of action

  • JAT Robinson in honest to god - “only ethic for a man come of age”

  • promotes more autonomy than Kantian ethics even though that was his goal.