Situation Ethics Revision

?
  • Created by: MattyLew
  • Created on: 16-12-16 12:32
View mindmap
  • SITUATION ETHICS 
    • CONTEXT
      • Joseph Fletcher
        • felt Christianity should focus less on conformity + control and focus on agape
        • "an ethic for humanity come of age" felt that humans were mature enough to make their own autonomous decisions due to the 60's revolution and social/politcal/cultural shift
      • 1960'S - gravitation away from the Church
        • SOCIAL CLIMATE: 1) more women in the workplace, contraception - the pill meant women could choose when to have children, more women going to Uni 2) CIvil Rights - everyone should be treated the same - change in social power
          • 3)Emergence of the teenager - new label - younger people (post-war gen) began to fight against society's constraints and norms, people became more autonomous - broke family boundaries and religious ideals, chose their own futures
        • POLITICAL CLIMATE: 1) the USA's involvement led to people's distrust of the government (particularly younger gen's) - disenchantment of patriotic obedience - anti-war movement - people started questioning authoritative powers (Church, Politically)      2)Fight for civil rights (e.g. Martin Luther King)
        • CULTURAL CLIMATE: 1) 'make love not war' hippie movement, disenchantment with authority and Vietnam war 2) emergence of the teenager, new group able to express themselves in a new freedom       3) freely available contracetion = freedom to exress new individualism in non-marital sex
      • POLITICAL CLIMATE: 1) the USA's involvement led to people's distrust of the government (particularly younger gen's) - disenchantment of patriotic obedience - anti-war movement - people started questioning authoritative powers (Church, Politically)      2)Fight for civil rights (e.g. Martin Luther King)
    • What kind of theory is it? - key terms
      • Normative Ethical Thoery (prescribes moral behaviour)
        • Situational
      • Christian Ethical Theory (non-secular)
      • Teleological -focuses on the consequence
        • Relativistc - is flexible
      • Based on the concept of Agape
        • Demands nothing in return
        • = unconditional neighbourly love
        • Self-sacrificial love
        • CS Lewis "Specifically Christian Value"
        • Unsentimental
        • Stems from Jesus's teachings
          • e.g. saving the adulterous women from being stoned to death
          • Healing on the sabbath
          • 'Love thy neighbour'
    • What is the most loving thing to do in this individual situation?
    • THE SIX FUNDAMENT-AL PRINCIPLES
      • 1:  Love is always good (intrinsically good)
        • 2: Love is the only norm (love replaces/ overrides law)
          • 3: Love and justice are the same
            • 4: Love wills the neighbours good
              • 5: Love is the only means (the consequence must be the most loving result possible)
                • 6: Love decides there and then (situational, not rule based)
    • THE FOUR PRESUPPOSI-TIONS
      • Pragmatism - actions should be practical and work in bringing about a loving outcome
      • Positivism - you must freely choose to act in a loving way, cannot force morality onto someone
      • Personalism - you must always put people before the law
    • 3 WAYS OF MAKING MORAL DECISIONS
      • LEGALISTIC - a set of fixed laws
        • either end up with too many laws, or too many exceptions to these laws (hard to follow and check)
        • takes away a persons responsibility for their actions - people don;t think for themselves
          • too rigid + strict, ignores individual circumstance
      • Situational - lies between the other two, only one rule (absolute law of love) but it is subject to any individual situation
        • Fletcher rejected blindly following the Church and instead felt agape was more instrinsically Christian
        • based off "God is love" 1 John 4:8
      • ANTINOMIAN - opposite of legalistic, it means 'against law' "unprincipled" and "anarchic"
        • no justification for a persons decisions, result in chaos + anarchy = leads to immoral acts, incompatible with Jesus teachings on agape from the Bible
  • ANTINOMIAN - opposite of legalistic, it means 'against law' "unprincipled" and "anarchic"
    • no justification for a persons decisions, result in chaos + anarchy = leads to immoral acts, incompatible with Jesus teachings on agape from the Bible

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Religious Studies resources:

See all Religious Studies resources »See all Ethics resources »