Situation ethics
- Created by: louisa abercrombie
- Created on: 11-05-13 18:16
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- Situation ethics
- Joseph Fletcher, J.A.T Robinson
- Came about in the 1960's when secularisation was increasing
- Fletcher situation Ethics 1966
- Ethics is a matter of always acting in agape
- Developed situation ethics on teachings and examples of Jesus
- emphasising importance of basing our decisions on what brings about the mmost love
- Teleological as it determines whether something is right or wrong by the consequences of the action
- New morality, man coming of age.
- situationism
- Middle grounds for two extremes; antinomianism legalism
- Antinomianism; believe by faith and Gods grace, a christian is free from all laws
- Legalism; Must use rules to guide your decisions found in books i.e Bible
- We should follow the rules of society and our community, but when in a situation where following rules will not result in the most love then we must be willing to put these rules aside.
- Middle grounds for two extremes; antinomianism legalism
- 4 working principles
- Relativism- absolute ideas such as 'never and always' should not be used; theres always an exception
- Personalism- Ethics deals with human relations. People should always be put first.
- pragmatism- never prejudge how you would act. Base your actions on the facts of a current situation
- Positivism- Love is always right and always leads to the best outcome. always aim to do the most loving thing.
- 6 fundermental principles
- Only one thing is intrinsically good, namely love.
- Ultimate norm of christian decisions is love.
- Love and justice are the same for justice is love distributed
- Love wills the nieghbours good whether we like him or not
- Only the ends justifies the means; nothing else.
- Decisions ought to be made situationally, not prescriptively
- The Golden Rule
- Love your nieghbour as you love yourself
- strengths
- Solution to two tendencies' legalism and antinomianism
- simple yet prfound
- Not meant to encourage laxity, agape at mind.
- Used Biblical support
- John 8; Jesus stopped a prostitute from being stoned to death even though law says you should.
- skirts the problems arising when a situation brings important rules into conflict
- Deals with individuals, each case is judged on its own merit.
- weaknesses
- Cannot foresee consequences
- Most loving thing is subjective
- St. Paul wrote that 'love is the fulfillment of law' not that 'love is the end of law' love and law need each other
- Based on the Bible so can only be followed by christian thinkers?
- the church
- Wrong to put the demands of love before the demands of morality
- Pope Pius XII had declared Christian ethics based on situations as 'an opposition to natural law, God's law.'
- Protestant and catholic churches did not think it was appropriate to change the churches rules to fit societys social norms
- Church shouldnt try to please society but society should act in a way that pleases the church
- 1964 British council of churches appointed a working party to create a document which promoted abstinence from sexual intercourse before marriage
- 'It is individualistic because humans see things from their own perspective. There is a danger that the ideals of unconditional love will be polluted by selfish human tendency and people using it as an excuse for not obeying the rules'
- 'How many parents can show equal love to strangers as their own children' Pope Pius XII
- This argument made Robinson withdraw his support from situation ethics
- 'How many parents can show equal love to strangers as their own children' Pope Pius XII
- William barcley
- Living by the law of love is too optimistic because it is inevitable to be influenced by preferences, prejudice and confession
- 'It is much easier to agree that extraordinary situations need extraordinary measures than to think that there are no laws for ordinary life.' ethics in a permissive society
- Scandalous risks
- Susan Hawkins 1990
- In love with married priest but uses situation ethics to allow him to cheat and not get a divorce
- New morality cannot relate to reality
- Joseph Fletcher, J.A.T Robinson
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