situation ethics

antinominalism

against law - the belief that there should be no laws or principles governing behaviour.

leagalism

strict and rigid conformity to all laws and rules.

4 presuppositions

• pragmatism

• positivism

• personalism

• relativism

6 working propositions

• love is the only absolute - intrinsically good

• Christian decision making is based on love

• love and justice are the same

• love is not liking

• love justifies its means

• loves decisions are made situationally not prescriptively

agape (agapeic love)

unconditional love for everybody.

what God intended us to share with everyone and for everyone.

The love God has for us.

strengths (religion)

• the whole ethical theory is grounded in the teaching and examples set by Jesus.

• ‘love your neighbour as yourself’

• we are made ‘imago Dei’ in Gods image - meaning we are expected to show agapeic love to each other just as God shows it to us.

• the modern-day adaptation of it creates it to also help and address problems that aren’t seen in the bible. - meaning it is open to people who are religious but also to those without the same beliefs, an ethical theory that can be followed and respected by all.

strength (simple)

• simple and flexible - many people can easily follow and understand.

• the flexibility reflects the complex nature of life and how each and every situation varies that we are in.

• accommodating modern nature of the world and how it can be adapted in different societies and different time periods.

• love is a necessity and is the main constant.

• Fletcher says ‘love is the only universal’

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weaknesses (Barclay)

• there is too much responsibility and the level of freedom of humans is terrifying. we are unable to make decisions for ourselves.

• we need the stability of law and rule.

• ‘if all men were saints then situation ethics would be a perfect ethic’

• the decisions we make represent the flaws in ourselves - and humans are full of flaws.

• Robinson ‘man come of age’ ethic

• we need the support of law and rules to help us make decisions.

  
  

weakness (objective)

• some peoples opinions and concepts of the most loving action can vary and change from each person,

• hard to distinguish between if someone had a truly morally loving intention when performing a task that had resulted in having unmoral consequences

• people could end up serving their own ends and using the autonomy of situation ethics to justify doing so.

• in the catholic church and in the modern world there are things that are seen as intrinsically bad and unmoral - no matter the situation always wrong. e.g. rape

• the intrinsic good of love (agape) can be manipulated and abused to justify unmoral actions.