IB Philosophy of Ethics: Situation Ethics
A mindmap summary of the key points and philosophers surrounding situation ethics. The weaknesses and strengths of the argument are also included.
- Created by: Milly
- Created on: 10-04-13 16:01
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- Situation Ethics
- Constitutionalist/teleological ethical theory because it considers the consequences/end purpose (telos) of the action
- Normative ethics
- Concept of love as a motivation for moral decision
- William Temple
- Used 'thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself' to justify ethical idea
- Do things to benefit others and the most loving thing
- How to act depends upon the situation
- Paul Tillich
- The law of love defies all law
- Love is the ultimate law
- It is a flexibly theory as love should be maximised
- Love will always guide you in the right direction
- The law of love defies all law
- Joseph Fletcher
- In some situations you need to do the right thing by challenging your beliefs and principles
- Ethics should be relative
- The world around us is not static therefore we should adapt our principles
- Accommodates Christian belief
- Four working principles
- Pragmatism
- Realistic
- a practical or success posture
- The purposed cause of action must work and must work towards the end which is love
- Relativism
- There are no fixed rules that must always be obeyed. However, nor is it free for all.
- All decisions must be relative to Christian love
- Positivism
- Christian approach with free will to promote love
- Religious knowledge or belief can only be approached by one of two ways
- With natural positivism, reason deduces faith from human experience or natural phenomena
- With theological positivism, faith statements are made and people act in a reasonable way
- Personalism
- Despite the law, humans should always be helped first
- Pragmatism
- Six fundamental principles
- 1.Only love is good, actions aren't intrinsically right or wrong - it depends on the situation
- Intrinsically good meaning good in itself without references to consequences
- 2. The Commandments are not absolute, love replaces law
- 3. Love and justice can't be separated, justice is love at work
- 4. Love is a desire for the good of another person.
- This is agape love, which is unconditional and nothing else is required in return
- 5. You must take into account the means available, the motive for acting and the consequences to achieve the most loving result
- 6. Whether something is wrong or right depends on the situation. The most loving thing is the right thing to do.
- 1.Only love is good, actions aren't intrinsically right or wrong - it depends on the situation
- Strengths
- By allowing free will as well as Christian approach, religious extremism is prevented as there is more flexibility of thought
- The approach is logical, realistic and can therefore be attained
- Doing the most loving thing prevents hatred
- It is easily adaptable and flexible
- Encourages people to take into account the consequences of their actions - less self centred
- Agape love supersedes inequality
- Philosophy and religion complement each other
- Takes into account the complexity of human life
- Allows lesser of two evils
- Weaknesses
- How can love replace law if love and justice are intrinsically linked?
- Do people have the same perception of what the most loving thing to do is?
- Too subjective
- Could this lead to religious extremism, if the aim to achieve love is taken too far?
- Pragmatism- can only work if the situation itself is practical
- Contradicts what is in the Bible about Christian law
- Is it not trying to maintain Christian ideas
- By being based on Christian ethic does it only allow for Christian followers?
- Consequences can be difficult to predict
- Agape love is underachievable and unrealistic
- We naturally love those who are close to us more
- The majority may outweigh the minority
- Could allow for discrimination of the minority
- The actions may be wrong to promote the end loving result
- Killing someone to save others
- Torture in order to potentially help others
- Philosophers' criticisms
- William Barclay
- Living by the law of love is too optimistic because it is inevitable to be influenced by preferences,prejudice and confusion
- Kirkwood
- Fletcher offers no definition of love
- Three different accounts of how the principle of agape love can be followed
- Gives no guidance of what a 'situation' is
- Different people would percieve the situation differently
- Lack of consistency
- Untitled
- Different people would percieve the situation differently
- Fletcher offers no definition of love
- William Barclay
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