Situation Ethics
- Created by: Freya Potts
- Created on: 13-03-19 09:12
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- Situation Ethics
- Joseph Fletcher
- 4 Working Principles
- 3. Positivism = Puts faith before reason
- 1. Pragmatism = Has to work in daily life; has to be practical
- 2. Relativism= Has no fixed rules
- 4. Personalism = People should be the centre of the theory
- 6 Fundamental Principles
- 1. Love is the only absolute
- 4 Working Principles
- Based on the Christian idea of agape love
- But can easily be applied in a non-religious way.
- The radical obligation of the Christian ethic to love even the enemy.
- To do the most loving thing for anyone even if you don't like them
- Fletcher rejected legalism and antinomianism and said that we need to find a balance between the two.
- The highest good is human welfare and happiness (but not, necessarily, pleasure)
- Moral judgments are decisions, not conclusions
- Decisions ought to be made situationally, not prescriptively
- Its the end that justifies the means
- Decisions ought to be made situationally, not prescriptively
- Pro's
- Because moral decisions are treated on a case-by-case basis, the decision is always tailored to particular situations.
- Situation ethics teaches that right acts are those motivated by the wish to promote the well-being of people.
- Situation Ethics does not reject laws but sees them as useful tools which are not absolutely binding.
- Con's
- It excludes most universal moral truths
- its subjective; different people have different ideas of what's the most loving thing to do in a situation
- It may approve of 'evil' acts
- people are biased to their loved ones
- Joseph Fletcher
- 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
- 3. Justice is love distributed
- 5. Only the end justifies the means
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