Situation ethics

Who developed situation ethics?

Joseph Fletcher

What two ideas did Fletcher disapprove of?

• legalism

• antinomianism

What is legalism?

Legalism tells everyone what to do and sets rules and laws.

What is argued with legalism?

There is no room for individual circumstances to be considered because the rules are absolutely good, set by God or reasoned through casuistry, and cannot be broken

What did Fletcher think about this?

found such a complex web of laws and rules very restrictive

What did Fletcher believe regarding legalism?

suffocating and binding.

What is the issue with legalism?

If you enter into a moral decision with prefabricated rules and regulations that you must abide to, that must be followed, the rules will take priority over the people in the situation

What is antinomianism?

it is the view that there are no rules or laws to follow at all

What did he claim with SE?

it was a middle ground which avoids the problems of each extreme while retaining the benfit of each

What is the downside of antinomianism?

it leads to moral chaos as rules are not being followed

What is the benfit of SE?

takes the situation into account, give people clear guidance and avoids moral chaos

How does it avoid moral chaos and give clear guidance?

claiming that love is the one single absolute principle that should be applied to all situations. The action that is good is the one which has the most loving consequence in the situation you’re in

What is the importance of Agape in Christianity drawn from?

Jesus saying that the ‘greatest commandment’ is to love your neighbour as yourself’

How does Fletcher interpret this?

suggesting all other religious rules, principles and commandments only have value insofar as they enable Agape

What example does Fletcher give?

a family hiding from bandits when their baby started crying, which would reveal their hiding place. The most loving thing to do would be to kill the baby because the situation was that they would all die otherwise, including the baby

What theory is SE?

a teleological or consequential theory

What are the four working principles?

• pragmatism

• relativism

• positivism

• personalism

What is pragmatism?

an action must be calibrated to the reality of the situation

what is positivism?

Fletcher believed that ethics had to begin with faith n love because he thought no rational answer can be given for why someone should love as it’s a matter of faith in Jesus’ command to love your neighbour as yourself. Thinking is supported by faith, instead of of faith being supported by thinking

What is Personalism?

SE puts people above rules. As jesus said ‘‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’’. Fletcher claims that this shows that Jesus knew rules could be broken if it was for the good of humanity to do so

What is Relativism?

Relativism relates to the tactics that are practically employed when actually making ethical decisions. These are the things that are always subject to change. To be relative means to relate to something, and there needs to be an absolute principle

What is the boss principle or the absolute principle?

agape

What is the strength of situation ethics?

It is designed for modern society. Fletcher and Robinson argue that humanity has ‘come of age’, meaning more mature. In medieval and ancient times, there had to be strict rules put in place because they could not be trsuted to understand and act on the complexities in how a rule could be justifiably bent if the situation called for it.

Who disagreed with SE?

William Barclay

What did Barclay argue?

SE gives moral agents a dangerous amount of freedom. For freedom to be good, lovehas to be perfect. If there is no or not enough love then ‘freedom can become selfish and even cruelty’

What else does barclay argue?

argues that mankind has not yet come of age and so ‘still needs the crutch and protection of law’

How does Barclay’s argument fail?

legalism has worse downsides. It may be true that some would abuse the autonomy SE grants them. However, that is arguably not as bad compared with the dangers of legalistic morality, which is inflexible and outdated

Why does it make sense for Fletcher to develop a morality which reflects the fact that people can be trusted with more freedom?

the direction of history involves people becominng more educated and civilised

How is Barclay’s argument successful?

although people may appear improved in modern times, if granted the freedom and thus power to do what they want, they won’t choose the loving thing they will choose the selfish or even the cruel thing

What does this echoe the dabte of?

about the extent to which human nature is corrupt, such as original sin

What would some traditional Christians argue?

those who adhere to Martin Luther’s concept tof sola scripture- would argue that Fletcher’s theory is not genuine Christian ethics, because Fletcher has ignored most of the commands in the Bible, focusing on only Agape

What is another issue with SE?

The Bible is fulll of other commands such as ‘thou shalt not kill’ so Euthanasia would be wrong, even if SE says it is out of agape and says that killing or adultery are both fine in situations where they have a loving outcome

How would Fletcher counter this?

he sees as a strength of his ethics, which is his liberal view of biblical inspiration

What does Fletcher point out?

taking the Bible literally is unscientific and he rightfully points out that no one manages to live like a literalist. However, if we interpret the Bible, we can’t tell whose interpretation is right. So, his approach is to follow the foundational theme, which is love

What is the evaluation for his defense?

it is unsuccessful because the liberal approach to the bible is no better than trying to interpret it. The themes and the paradigms of the bible are also a matter of subjective interpretation and he has not solved the problem on how to interpret the bible.

Therefore what is the issue with SE?

it fails to provide a convincing approach to Christian ethics and ends up sliding into antinomianism due to being subjective