SITUATION ETHICS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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

• euthanasia arguments

EVALUATION

• society only civilised due to laws

• canada 1969 police strikes

• stanford prison experiemnt

• fletcher could lead to antinomianism

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

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

• 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

counter

• 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

• RELATIVIST: the most loving thing is not specific or clear

• IMPRACTICAL: difficult to decide

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'

• 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

counter

• 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

• LOVE ISNT THE ONLY COMMANDMENT

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