Flashcards
Situation Ethics
Cards in this deck (9)
- 1Basic Outline- Situation ethics as a principle of morality was proposed by the American moral theologian, Joseph Fletcher.
- He outlined an approach to Christian ethics, called Situationism that considered each situation on its merits before applying the Christian principle of love (agape).
- Fletcher was inspired by Jesus’ gospel message of love and he appealed to the biblical scholar Rudolf Bultmann, according to whom Jesus taught no ethics other than “love thy neighbour as thyself”.
- Bultmann was a liberal Christian an focused on portraying the historical Jesus.
- It was this focus that led Bultmann and ultimately Fletcher to focus on Jesus’ teaching on love rather than worrying about proving whether or not Jesus was divine. - 2Legalism- Legalistic ethics uses sets of rules and regulations.
- Christianity and Judaism for example, are based on specific rules, namely the 10 Commandments and natural law.
- This approach rigidly applies set principles and follows laws as absolutes without consideration of context.
- This is linked to the deontological ethical approach which suggests that rules/laws should be followed regardless of the consequences.
- The major problem with this ethical approach is when life’s complexities require additional laws.
- For example, if we take the concept of killing. It is difficult to hold a rigid law such as ‘Do not kill’ as killing can happen in a number of different circumstances such as killing in war, in self-defence, in hatred or of unborn babies.
- For this problem to be overcome the legalist must include alternatives or new laws.
- The result is a choking web of laws that leaves more questions than answers. - 3Antinomianism- Antinomianism comes from the Greek meaning lawless.
- In Christian theology it is a term for the teaching that Christians are under no obligation to obey the laws of ethics or morality.
- Few, if any, would explicitly call themselves "antinomian," hence, it is usually a charge levelled by one group against an opposing group.
- Antinomianism may be viewed as the polar opposite of legalism, the notion that obedience to a code of religious law is necessary for salvation.
- In this sense, both antinomianism and legalism are considered errant extremes. - 4Situationism• This is the middle way between legalism and antinomianism.
• Fletcher attempted to lessen the legalism of the Church and to allow a more humane response to circumstances.
• He argues that absolute moral principles do not work in the real world.
• An absolute law such as ‘Do not kill’ is as we have seen not really treated as an absolute in practice.
• He argues that in order to make a meaningful ethical decision, the situation needs to be considered for each individual moral decision and action.
• In turn, this decision then depends upon the practical application of Christian love (agape).
• The right decision in one circumstance, however, does not become the blueprint for all other circumstance.
• Each situation should be considered independently.
• Fletcher’s approach to ethics was that using absolute ethical principles and applying them to real life situations was simply not Christian.
• This means that situation ethics is sensitive to variety and complexity in day to day life. - 5Conscience- Situation ethics, as an ethical principle is closely linked to the idea of the conscience.
- However, conscience is used in a special sense in Situation Ethics.
- Fletcher rejects the traditional idea of what a conscience is.
- Conscience is not ‘intuition’, is not a channel of guidance from God, is not a value system of a culture or society and finally it is not the reason for making moral judgements.
- Fletcher rejects these ideas because they all treat conscience as a thing, which Fletcher believes is a mistake.
- Rather, for him, conscience is a verb rather than a noun-it is something you do when you make decisions, as he puts it, ‘creatively.’
- Some Christian writers have argued that conscience was the voice of God inside you, the way in which we understand what God’s laws are.
- However for Fletcher, conscience is not a bag of reliable rules and principles to tell you what to do.
- It in no way guides human action.
- For the Situationist, conscience describes the weighing of the possible decision before it is taken. - 6Moral Decisions rather than rules- Situation Ethics moves away from legalism and following rules by focusing on moral decisions.
- In situation ethics, right and wrong depend upon the situation.
- There are no universal moral rules or rights - each case is unique and deserves a unique solution.
- An example of this is the actions of Jesus when he healed the man with a withered hand on the Sabbath day.
- He put aside the rules regarding the Sabbath Law and did the right thing.
- Situation ethics rejects 'prefabricated decisions and prescriptive rules'.
- It teaches that ethical decisions should follow flexible guidelines rather than absolute rules, and be taken on a case by case basis.
- A further example is the St Louis cab driver that Fletcher quoted who said “Sometimes you’ve gotta put your principles to one side and do the right thing”.
- Rules (or principles) aren’t the same thing as doing what is right. - 7Fletcher's six fundamental principles (1, 2, 3)1. Only love is intrinsically good, only love is universal – Fletcher believes that agape is the only absolute we should use and this means it can change depending on the situation.
2. The ruling norm of Christian decisions is love, nothing else – Christians should act lovingly as this may be more ‘lawful’ than actual laws. Jesus broke Sabbath laws in order to carry out a more lawful/loving action.
3. Love and justice are the same – Fletcher believes that as long as we act out of love then our decisions will be just (right). - 8Fletcher's six fundamental principles (4, 5, 6)4. Love wills the neighbours good – basing decisions on agape means that love will not discriminate. We will look beyond the love of family and friends and see what would be the most loving thing for everyone concerned. Agape does not discriminate.
5. Only the end justifies the means – it is ‘teleological’ as it deals with the end result. To follow the principle of ‘Do not Kill’ is not practical and is inflexible. We should decide if the decision is loving based on the end result.
6. Love’s decisions are made situationally – for real decision making there has to be freedom. Absolutes do not give you freedom as they cannot be broken. Situationism allows freedom to make relative decisions. - 9Understanding of Christian Love (Agape)- Fletcher understood Christian love using the Greek term ‘agape’ which is best translated as ‘unconditional or self-sacrificial love’.
- Agape love is unique and is distinguished by its nature and character.
- Agape is love which is of and from God, whose very nature is love itself.
- Fletcher saw his approach to ethics as grounded in the Christian gospel.
- He sees love as an active principle – it is a ‘doing’ thing rather than a noun or thing in itself.
- “Love is the only universal. But love is not something we have or are, it is something we do.”
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- Flashcards on Situation Ethics, created by bjtaylor0298 on 09/05/2016.
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