Situation Ethics
- Created by: sophie_beckk
- Created on: 15-11-17 18:17
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- Situation Ethics
- Teleological
- Comes from the Greek word ''telos'' meaning ''end''
- Consequential theory
- Concerned with consequence and ending rather than the action
- Law of love
- In situation ethics, within each context, it is not a universal law that is to be followed, but the law of love.
- Situation ethics, takes into account the particular context of an act when evaluating it ethically, rather than judging it according to absolute moral standards.
- In situation ethics, within each context, it is not a universal law that is to be followed, but the law of love.
- Four working principles
- Pragmatism, positivism, relativism and personalism are the four working principles
- 1. Pragmatism (it has to work in daily life - it must be practical)
- 2. Relativism (there should be no fixed rules)
- 3. Positivism (it must put faith before reasoning – "I am a Christian, so what should I do?")
- 4. Personalism (people should be at the centre of the theory)
- Pragmatism, positivism, relativism and personalism are the four working principles
- Joseph Fletcher
- Fletcher believed situation ethics is based on agape love (Christian unconditional love), and says that we should always do the most loving thing in any situation.
- Fletcher rejected following rules regardless (legalism) and also the idea that we should not have any rules (antinomianism) and said that we need to find a balance between the two.
- Six Fundamental Principles
- 1. Love is the only absolute (it is intrinsically good)
- 2. Christian decision making is based on love
- 3. Justice is love distributed
- 4. Love wants the good for anyone, whoever they are
- 5. Only the end justifies the means
- 6. Love is acted out situationally not prescriptivally
- 5. Only the end justifies the means
- 4. Love wants the good for anyone, whoever they are
- 3. Justice is love distributed
- 2. Christian decision making is based on love
- 1. Love is the only absolute (it is intrinsically good)
- Advantages and disadvantages
- Advantage - The key advantage is that it uses rules to provide a framework but allows people to break rules to reflect life's complexities.
- Disadvantages - It does not provide a clear definition of what love actually is. It is human nature to love family more than strangers.We do not know whose rules to follow.
- Teleological
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