Situation Ethics PDF

Situation ethics Thursday 19 December 2024 09:31 John fletcher created situation ethics as his rejection of other forms of ethics which had antinomianism stances or legalist approaches such as deontological theories (Kantian ethics, natural law). Instead fletcher believes we should base our d...

Situation ethics Thursday 19 December 2024 09:31 John fletcher created situation ethics as his rejection of other forms of ethics which had antinomianism stances or legalist approaches such as deontological theories (Kantian ethics, natural law). Instead fletcher believes we should base our decisions on agape and this should be our basis of morality. Fletcher’s rationale for using the religious concept of agape was the middle way between the extremes of antinomianism and legalism His arguments are based on biblical support yet are not strictly Christian Situation ethics is a form of moral relativism, a consequentialist and teleological theory. In ethical decision making, situation ethics states that an action is good if the consequences of the action creates selfless love and an action is bad if the consequence of the action creates selfishness Situation ethics depends on 2 main guides The four working principles - Pragmatism - what you propose must work in practice - Relativism - words like ‘always’, ‘never’, ‘absolute’, are rejected - Positivism - a value judgement needs to be made, giving first place to love - Personalise - people re put in first place, morality is personal and not centred on laws 6 working principles - Love is the only good. It is the only thing which is intrinsically good and right regardless of the situation - Love is the railing norm of Christianity. This love is self-giving love, which seeks the best interests of others but allows people the freedom and responsibility to choose the right thing for themselves - Love equals justice. Justice will follow love, because ‘justice is love distributed’. If love is put into practice, it can only result in justice. Justice in concerned with giving everyone their due - its concern is with neighbours, not just our neighbour - Love has no favourites and is for all, it does not give whom we like preferential treatment - it is good will which reached out to strangers, acquaintances, friends and even enemies - The login ends justify the means. Lobe must be the final end, not a means to an end. People must choose what to do because the action will result in love not be loving in order to achieve some other result - The loving thing to do will depend on the situation -and as situations differ, an action that might be right in one situation could be wrong in another. This quite different from traditional Christian ethics and is far more relativistic, having just one moral rule - agape.