Situation Ethics
Joseph Fletchers Situation Ethics
- Created by: Lotti Crocker
- Created on: 06-04-14 20:39
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- Situation Ethics
- Anti-Nomianism
- Love is an intrinsic rule in itself
- "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath"
- Do what is right in the situation, not what the law says
- Jesus rejected Phrasaic Judaism
- Paul Tillich
- Any belief in the coherence of unity of God's creation, we rule one another is bad faith; mauvaise foi.
- "We have no excuses behind us and therefore no justification before us."
- Legalism
- The Sabbath, one must not work on the Sabbath
- Empahsis on law, deontological nature
- Examples:
- Pharasaic Judaism, 613 strict laws, the Torah
- Roman Catholicism, Natural Law Principle
- Historical Background
- 1960's
- The Beatles, 'All You Need is Love'
- Rejecting authoritarianism, towards autonomy
- Joseph Fletcher (Christian, non secular)
- 1966, Situation Ethics
- Agape is the sole intrinsic good
- 1966, Situation Ethics
- 1966, 'Honest to God', Bishop John Robinson
- Law, chruch and judgement is to the indivudals disgression
- Rise of universities
- Paternalism and legalistic views begun to be questioned
- Catholicism, natural law and roman catholics challenged for being too legalistic, the revolution lead by antinomianism
- The Beatles, 'All You Need is Love'
- Judaism
- Roots in Judaism. Shemah: "Hear O Israel, love the lord God with all your mind, all your soul and all your strength"
- Love is fundemental in Judaism
- Jesus said the most important commandment is to love God, love thy neighbor
- 1960's
- Agape
- "A compassionate but disinterested concern for human beings"
- No personal gain, alturistic, philanthropic may involve self sacrifice
- Vicarious suffering (e.g. the Cruxificion)
- Non preferential and non reciprocal (expects nothing in return)
- Philanthropy (e.g. Bill Gates)
- Attitudinal, non emotions involved
- "Agape is distinguished from philia and eros, both of which are selective and exclusive. ****** and philic love are both emotional but Christian love is will disposition, it is an attitude not a feeling."
- A viamedium between antinomianism and legalism, following the most loving thing to do.
- The 6 Principles
- Nothing is good in and of itself except agape.
- Jesus and St Paul replacced the Torah with agape, "I have not come to abolish the law and the prophets but to fufill them." (Jesus, Matthew 5:17-19) "We love because he first loved us" St Paul
- Love and justice are compatible. Fletcher argues that agape means standing up for justice, representing those who are oppressed.
- The prophet Amos denounces those who take advantage of the poor by paying low wages.
- In South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which investigated the evils of the Apartheid.
- Tutu expressed the importance of justice to uphold the lvoe of the people who were oppressed.
- Love wills the good of the neighbor: as agape is a selfless love and one is called to love other people without the desire for reward (dissociated love). "You have heard of old. love thy neighbor, but I say to you, 'Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."
- Love is the end that is sought, agape is a consequential, not deontological ethic
- Love's decisions are made in the context of particular situations. Such a principle relates to the relativism of Situation Ethics.
- The 4 Characteristics
- Pragmatism
- Professor Harvey Cox: "Reason must be used to work out the most loving thing to do"
- Descartes 17th Century: "I think therefore I am" is too theoretical post Enlightenment
- John Dewey (Educational Psychologist): "The more interactions we ascertain the more we know about the object in question
- 1950's American theologists said ethics needed to work in practice in conjunction with empirical evidence
- Relativism
- No absolute, morally binding laws that should be followed, only love
- "Love relativises the absolute, it does not absolutise the relative" ( Joseph Fletcher)
- You apply love in the correct way to the correct situation
- "The absolutism of love is its power to go into concrete situations to discover what is demanded by the predicament." (Paul Tillich)
- Personalism
- Human beings were made imago dei, therefore people are ethics first concern
- Draws similarities to Kant, humans are rational and use their reason a priori so are ethics first concern
- "S.E.: The fruit of the rejection of the doctrinaire and the dogmaatic" Joseph Fletcher
- Theological Positivism
- "God is love" (1 John 4:8) therefore we should lead a life of agape
- Paul Tillich: "Love is an ontological (fundemental) dimension of the universe", love is an intrinsic part of the human being
- Jesus lived a life of love, love is intrinsic in the biblical Golden Rule (Deuteronomy 6:5) "And thou shalt love thy God with all thine heart, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
- According to Joseph Fletcher, if you listen to God toy always do the right thing through love. "Faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6)
- Pragmatism
- Anti-Nomianism
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