Situation Ethics
- Created by: irisama
- Created on: 02-12-16 18:37
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- Situation Ethics
- 1. Introduction
- What is Situation Ethics?
- The doctrine of flexibility in the application of moral laws according to circumstance. This relies on your conscience and what you determine as right and wrong.
- What Fletcher had to do with it
- Four Working Principles; Pragmatism- practical, Positivism- positive choice, Relativism-rules don't always apply and Personalism-people first "Man was not made for the Sabbath"
- 6 Propositions; 1) Love is always good. 2)Love is the only norm(rule) 3)Love and Justice are the same 4)Love wills the neighbor's good whether we like them or not 5)Love Justifies the means (Teleological) 6)Love decides there and then
- He believed that every situation should be dealt in the most loving way.
- -American Episcopalian moralist. -Disagreed with legalism and antinominism.
- Agapism is the heart of situation ethics. Agape is a Greek word which means love in terms of benevolence .
- Four Working Principles; Pragmatism- practical, Positivism- positive choice, Relativism-rules don't always apply and Personalism-people first "Man was not made for the Sabbath"
- Supportive Examples, i.e Jesus (New Testment)
- What is Situation Ethics?
- Pro's
- Individuals are provided with equity. i.e Stealing may be seen as bad in some situations, and not so bad in others. Flexible.
- Individuals are not subject to rules which bind them. Nothing is intrinsically wrong nor right (except love).
- Agapism/love seeks the well-being of others in situations
- Modeled by the teachings of Jesus, so it could be acceptable for Christians. "Love your neighbor as yourself".
- Gives people the chace to be in control of their own moral decisions.
- Con's
- It would be difficult to make current decisions with our far future in mind
- In some situations "evil" acts such as adultery would be classified as "good" which could cause guilt
- Doesn't justify what "good" is. People have different interpretations of it. Very subjective. Meta-ethics; what is love,
- In one of Fletcher's books, he states that parents shouldn't feel guilt if they abort or send away their disabled child since they are not human. This is a very contradictive statement
- William Barclay- states that we are very likely not to be in one of Fletcher's extreme examples.
- What if its an extreme situation, when you have to put yourself before your neighbor.
- Evaluation
- Overall, Fletcher's situation ethics is not useful because.........
- 1. Introduction
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