SITUATION ETHICS !

agape

unconditional love

antinomianism

no laws

conscience

An inner feeling of the rightness or wrongness of an action

egocentric

thinking of ourselves only

individualistic

situation ethics is person centered + subjective

intrinsically good

good in itself

justice

6 propositions: love + justice are the same thing

legalism

overreliance on rules

personalism

(4 working principles)
-people are more important than rules

pragmatism

4 working principles
fletcher seeks solutions that work in practise rather than theoretical solutions

positivism

4 working principles:
values are decided by starting w faith in god + reasoning what this means in each situation

relativism

4 working principles:
love is the absolute, everything else is relative to it

subjective

dependent on each situation, not absolutist

teleological

focuses on the outcome of an action

unconditional

agape is god's unconditional love

six propositions

1. 'Only one thing is intrinsically good, namely love: nothing else at all'
2. 'The ruling norm of Christian decision making is love, nothing else'
3. 'Love and Justice are he same, for justice is love distributed, nothing else'
4. 'Love wills the neighbours good, whether we like him or not'
5. 'Only the end justifies the means; nothing else'
6. 'Loves decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively'

4 working principles

Pragmatism, Relativism, Positivism, Personalism

se is a helpful way of moral decision making

FLEXIBLE: able to deal w exceptional situations, avoiding legalism that NL leads us to. enables people to keep the spirit of the law w/o being obsessed with the letter of the law

RELATIVIST: decision to be made in each situation. absolutist theories can struggle w conflicting duties but se enables us to choose the lesser of the two evils

se is a helpful way of moral decision making

PERSON CENTRED: + closer to the teachings of jesus, who put people above rules

UNIVERSAL: most ppl agree on the principle of love - if we love other we want what is best for them, seems more compassionate than some versions of util which focus on pleasure + pain

se is not a helpful way of moral decision making

NO MORAL BOUNDARIES: everything could be permitted if the situation was extreme enough - doesnt seem right. some things eg rape/genocide are inherently wrong + no circumstances can make them right

TELEOLOGICAL: requires us to make predictions ab the outcome that our actions will produce. we do not always know whether what we have done will produce the most loving outcome

se is not a helpful way of moral decision making

RELATIVIST: the most loving thing is not specific or clear

IMPRACTICAL: difficult to decide where a situation begins + ends. decision to take a life to save others is a good short term solution but may set a chain of events that lasts for generations

UNORIGINAL: se is just a christian version of util that uses agape rather than pleasure + pain

ethical judgements should be based on agape

GOOD PRINCIPLE: sums up the most important commandments according to jesus

USEFUL: helps us know when to accept the general rules + when to break them (flexible to diff situations)

GENUINE: relativist principle but unlike pleasure is not easy to manipulate. cannot justify horrible acts with love in the same way extreme situations can produce the most pleasure

ethical judgements should not be based on agape

SUBJECTIVE: can be interpreted differently - may conjure charity/compassion, but may also represent a dispassionate wanting of good for others. both the concept + application to individual situations can produce diff results

DISREGARDS THE LAW: se tries to deal with difficult cases. lawyers + philosophers argue that hard cases make bad laws + agape may be the right approach sometimes, but most cases require us to follow the conventional rules

BETTER PRINCIPLES: eg pleasure/duty/purpose. a religious believer may argue that god directly reveals commands + a stress on agape may lead a believer away from the revelation

se is a religious theory

WORD OF JESUS: who summed up the whole of jewish law as 'love god' and 'love your neighbour as yourself'

JESUS' REBELLION: jesus' attitude to the pharisees in the NT shows a clear opposition to the legalism of his day. a good religious ethic doesn't have to be based on hard + fast rules

TEACHING: idea that love is the key evidence of genuine religious is found in the words of jesus 'by this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another' + in augustines teachings

se is not a religious theory

REJECTED BY ESTABLISHED CHURCH: + condemned at the time of fletcher's writing by pope pius XII. was in clear opposition to NL on a key number of issues

HIGHLY SELECTIVE READING: fletcher's reading of the words of jesus is highly selective. jesus condemns divorce + adultery + speaks of hell more than heaven

se is not a religious theory

LOVE ISNT THE ONLY COMMANDMENT: jesus tells his disciples if they love him they are to obey his commandments - implies there are commandments other than love

LOVE IS SECULAR: fletcher's interpretation of agape as unconditional wishing the best for our neighbour is not christian - similar to act util

se is too individualistic + subjective

LOVE IS SUBJECTIVE: emphasis on individual decision making means this could never be an ethic applied in society as views of love differ

CONSCIENCE: fletchers view on conscience as being a key process in decision making is vague - he misinterprets aquinas

se is too individualistic + subjective

OVERLY OPTIMISTIC: ab our capacity to clearly reson + reach moral decisions. augustine + barth would be cautious ab our ability to reason as we are fallen + will is divided. psychologists refer to the phenomenon of cognitive dissoenance, that makes it difficult for us to accept evidence that goes against a deeply held belief

se is not too individualistic + subjective

RESPONSIBILITY + AUTONOMY: rather than relying on external authorities, se gives responsibility + autonomy in moral decision making. se treats individuals as adults

FLEXIBLITY: situations + contexts differ greatly + flexibility is important. se recognises what is right for one person in a specific situation is not the same for others

COMMUNITY: other thinkers who have used love as the basis of decision making have continued to recognise the importance of community for ethical decision making eg bonhoeffers community at finkenwalde

AO1 knowledge

Fletcher

• rejects legalistic traditional approch

• rejects antinomianism (no rules)

• created middle ground of agape

4 principles

• pragmatism

• positivism

• relativism

• personalism

6 principles love

• love is only intrinsic good - ruling norm - justice love distributed - good for anyone - ends justify means - acted situationally

fletcher v sola scriptura

• liberal view - if we interpret bible we cannot know who is right

• fletcher follows bibles foundational theme love

COUNTER

• traditional christians think situation ethics isn’t proper ethics

• ignores many bible commands

• ‘thou shall not kill’ gives too much moral freedom if we ignore

• pope pius against

dangerous autonomy arg

• Robinson- humans have ‘come of age’

• Bonhoeffer- world has ‘come of age’

• in past less educated so more strict rules needed like aquinas precepts

COUNTER

• BARCLAY- gives dangerous amoun t of freedom

• man not of age

• wont do most loving thing

• power corrups- myth of er

EVALUATION

• society only civilised due to laws

• canada 1969 police strikes

• stanford prison experiemnt

• fletcher could lead to antinomianism

Jesus ethics on love arg

• greatest command ‘love thy neighbour’

• allowed breaking of rules - worked sabbath

• overturned old rules like ‘eye for an eye’

COUNTER

• Mouw - cant reduce religion to one command

• jesus either source of moral authority (too legalistic) or not

• pope pius xII- must follow all commands

EVALUATION

• why would jesus give other commands if love only one

• more logical to describe as greatest command

subjectivity issues

• love is subjective

• unstable base of ethics

• nazis thought they were doing most loving thing

COUNTER

• fletcher focuses on agape rather than love

• agape selfless love of others

• jesus everyone is your neighbour but nazis didn’t treat like that

• agape not subjective

EVALUATION

• HITCHENS- agape is still subjective

• a way a person loves is subjective

• nazis would kill themself if they found out they were jewish as most loving thing