Situation ethics
- Created by: Steff Wellington
- Created on: 10-04-16 13:02
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- Situation Ethics
- The features of Situation Ethics
- An ethical theory based on the single principle of love
- Peopleshould entre every situation prepared to act in the most loving way.
- The right thing to do in any given situation is the most loving thing to do.
- Fletcher defined love in the following way
- Agape Love: God's love for humanity.
- It is always good.
- Love and jusitce are the same, for love is justice distributed.
- It makes a decision which is unique to each individual situation.
- You shall love your neighbour as yourself." Luke 10:27
- 4 working principles
- Personalism: People should always be put first
- Relativism: "The situationist avoids words like 'never' and 'perfect' and 'always' and 'completely' as he avoids the plague as he avoids 'absolutely'."
- Positivism: Decisions should always be made using love as the most important consideration of all.
- Pragmatism: A proposed course of action, done out of love, should be practical and work in real life. The action must also work towards the end which is love.
- What is situation ethics?
- A relativistic theory: It has not absolute moral rules that have to be followed in every circumstance.
- A telelogical theory: Claiming that moral truth can be found through nature and purpose.
- A consequentialist theory: Where the end result is held to be of great importance.
- Joseph Fletcher: Ethical theories should be flexible enough to deal with varying circumstances. "For the situation there are no rules-none at all."
- 6 fundamental principles
- "Only one thing is intrinsically good; namely love."
- "Love and jusitce are the same, for justice is love distributed."
- "Love wills the neighbour's good, whether we like him or not." Show agape, unconditional love.
- "The ruling norm of Christian decision making, is love: nothing else." Jesus broke the rules when it best served love.d
- Only the end justifies the means."
- "Love's decisions are made situationally not prescriptively."
- Strengths and weaknesses
- Strengths
- It enables people to respond emotionally and/or rationally to the situation, rather than acting according to rules.
- It gives people the freedom to act according to the circumstances
- It is based on love.
- It is easy to understand.
- Love always seks the well-being of others.
- Weaknesses
- It depends too much on an individual's viewpoint.
- The absolute law of love is still a law.
- The theory could always justify the suffering of others?
- It breaks down the complex moral situation into individual moral decisions. This may not be the best way to resolve the problem
- Are only short-term consequences considered? How do we guess long-term consequences?
- It is ambiguous - no two people may agree on what the most loving thing to do actually is.
- It may not be possible to accurately guess the consequence.
- How do we measure love?
- Strengths
- The features of Situation Ethics
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