The strengths and weaknesses of Situation Ethics

Created by: Katie
Created on: 03-05-13 19:46


	The strengths and weaknesses of Situation Ethics
	Advantages THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT... It fits in with 'philosophy and practical ethics' because of Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus broke the religious rules and dealt with everyone as individuals and according to circumstances. Bases it's decisions upon Christ's statement that the whole of the law was summoned by the command that we ought to love our neighbour. In the greatest commandment, one of the Pharisees tested him as to what was the greatest commandment, he replied 'love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and mind' this is the greatest- the second greatest is- 'love your neighbour as yourself' IT IS FLEXIBLE... giving people personal freedom to decide what is the most loving action. It is also flexible in the sense that it allows people to take responsibility for their own moral decision making, so it doesn't patronize them and insist they follow the rules unquestioningly. God did not make us like robots he gave us free will to make moral choices and we must exercise that will not hide behind the rules DOESN'T REJECT LAWS... but sees them as useful tools which are not absolutely binding. As opposed to a legalistic, who follows the absolutes, and believes they must tell the truth could one day be faced with a murderer who wanted to find out where their wife was, they would be in an impossible position and most likely go against their approach. An advantage of a situationist is that they can lay aside the rule of not lying for the better outcome of saving a person's life. AGAPE IS CENTRAL TO MORALITY... is the basis of Fletcher's theory and there can only be a Christian basis of morality if agape love is seen as central to morality, if we follow how love guides us how can it be wrong?	Disadvantages WHAT IS MOST LOVING?... The biggest issue is that there will always be a dispute as to what is the most loving action and what this actually means in practice, everyone is subjective and have their own interpretations of different things and could see one thing as loving and another not that someone else may object. If two people using this system of ethics came to opposite conclusions as to what they should do, there is no way there dilemma could be solved because it rejects the absolute rules that could guide their actions. To depend a situation on the principle of agape love would be inadequate HIS VIEW DOESN'T REFLECT NEW TESTAMENT...on morality, the New testament appears to have clear moral views on theft and adultery, 'thou shall not steal', 'thou shall not commit adultery' the commandments- these suggests ABSOLUTES which could infer a legalistic point of view that Fletcher rejects, even though Jesus broke two rules the two commandments also suggest they were rule EXAMPLES FLETCHER USES = TOO EXTREME...they account for very few real instances in life, for example he uses the anecdote of the sacrifical adultery where a POW woman debates on whether to commit adultery with a guard in order to be reunited with her family, his idea being that it would bring the most love about, however it would be immoral and go against 'thou shall not commit adultery'. This is also very unlikely that a guard would do this and go against their morals, not based on an actual situation, very improbable it happened WILLIAM BARCLAY... argued that if law is the 'distillation of experience' that society has found to be beneficial, then to 'discard law is to discard experience' and the valuable wisdom and insight it may bring, when looking back it is clear that laws have had great impact on the world, it is clear they have stopped people from commiting murder, if they weren't there the world would be chaotic. This links to the idea that the law and absolutes are there for the protection of society, typically a situationist could result in killing someone if they managed to base it around bringing the most unconditional love for another which would be morally wrong and go against 'thou shall not murder' IT DECONSTRUCTS ITSELF... We need a specific or definitive idea of what outcome is the most valued, right before we can decide upon which acts are needed to bring about the right thing.
	Evaluation It is clear the majority would agree the weaknesses do outweigh the strengths of situation ethics, the weaknesses show why it has not been adopted by mainstream moral thinking in any of the major Christian churches. Situationist thinking can be seen as a response to the collapse of many moral certainties as well as the inadequacies of legalistic moral thinking but it would be more applicable to take a different approach.

The strengths and weaknesses of Situation Ethics

Advantages

THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT... It fits in with 'philosophy and practical ethics' because of Jesus in the New Testament. Jesus broke the religious rules and dealt with everyone as individuals and according to circumstances. Bases it's decisions upon Christ's statement that the whole of the law was summoned by the command that we ought to love our neighbour. In the greatest commandment, one of the Pharisees tested him as to what was the greatest commandment, he replied 'love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and mind' this is the greatest- the second greatest is- 'love your neighbour as yourself'
IT IS FLEXIBLE... giving people personal freedom to decide what is the most loving action. It is also flexible in the sense that it allows people to take responsibility for their own moral decision making, so it doesn't patronize them and insist they follow the rules unquestioningly. God did not make us like robots he gave us free will to make moral choices and we must exercise that will not hide behind the rules
DOESN'T REJECT LAWS... but sees them as useful tools which are not absolutely binding. As opposed to a legalistic, who follows the absolutes, and believes they must tell the truth could one day be faced with a murderer who wanted to find out where their wife was, they would be in an impossible position and most likely go against their approach. An advantage of a situationist is that they can lay aside the rule of not lying for the better outcome of saving a person's life.
AGAPE IS CENTRAL TO MORALITY... is the basis of Fletcher's theory and there can only be a Christian basis of morality if agape love is seen as central to morality, if we follow how love guides us how can it be wrong?

Disadvantages

WHAT IS MOST LOVING?... The biggest issue is that there will always be a dispute as to what is the most loving action and what this actually means in practice, everyone is subjective and have their own interpretations of different things and could see one thing as loving and another not that someone else may object. If two people using this system of ethics came to opposite conclusions as to what they should do, there is no way there dilemma could be solved because it rejects the absolute rules that could guide their actions. To depend a situation on the principle of agape love would be inadequate
HIS VIEW DOESN'T REFLECT NEW TESTAMENT...on morality, the New testament appears to have clear moral views on theft and adultery, 'thou shall not steal', 'thou shall not commit adultery' the commandments- these suggests ABSOLUTES which could infer a legalistic point of view that Fletcher rejects, even though Jesus broke two rules the two commandments also suggest they were rule
EXAMPLES FLETCHER USES = TOO EXTREME...they account for very few real instances in life, for example he uses the anecdote of the sacrifical adultery where a POW woman debates on whether to commit adultery with a guard in order to be reunited with her family, his idea being that it would bring the most love about, however it would be immoral and go against 'thou shall not commit adultery'. This is also very unlikely that a guard would do this and go against their morals, not based on an actual situation, very improbable it happened
WILLIAM BARCLAY... argued that if law is the 'distillation of experience' that society has found to be beneficial, then to 'discard law is to discard experience' and the valuable wisdom and insight it may bring, when looking back it is clear that laws have had great impact on the world, it is clear they have stopped people from commiting murder, if they weren't there the world would be chaotic. This links to the idea that the law and absolutes are there for the protection of society, typically a situationist could result in killing someone if they managed to base it around bringing the most unconditional love for another which would be morally wrong and go against 'thou shall not murder'
IT DECONSTRUCTS ITSELF... We need a specific or definitive idea of what outcome is the most valued, right before we can decide upon which acts are needed to bring about the right thing.

Evaluation

It is clear the majority would agree the weaknesses do outweigh the strengths of situation ethics, the weaknesses show why it has not been adopted by mainstream moral thinking in any of the major Christian churches. Situationist thinking can be seen as a response to the collapse of many moral certainties as well as the inadequacies of legalistic moral thinking but it would be more applicable to take a different approach.

Comments

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The strengths and weaknesses of Situation Ethics