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Situation Ethics (Four Working Principles (Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Barth -…
Situation Ethics
Four Working Principles
Relativism - All situations are always relative; situational ethicists try to avoid such words as 'never' and 'always'
Pragmatism - The moral action should first and foremost be practical and must work in the real world (unlike Kant's deontology)
Positivism - The whole point of situational ethics is that a person freely chooses to follow the concept of agape as described by Christianity
Personalism - The laws of a society should be for the benefit of the people rather than people following laws because they are laws
Fletcher advocated a third approach to ethics as he felt that ethics had been too polarised between legalistic and anti-nomian ethics
Principled Relativism - When a person decides whether a law that inhibits their ability to make a moral decision should be abandoned or not. Every action is made relative to the norm of love - the one absolute.
Informed Relativism - An application of a specific law to a certain situation. An example could be:
Boss Principle: Do not speak in such a way that a group of people will be offended by it (e.g. racism)
Additional guideline: Be guided by the speech of your teachers and parents
Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Barth - Existentialism - Laws are based on the human experience of the world rather than on predetermined laws that don't exist (critique of Natural Law)
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Paul Tillich - Another theorist pre-Fletcher - The absolution of love is its power to go into the concrete situation, to discover what is demanded by the predicament of the concrete to which it turns' (Systematic Theology)
Francis Moss - Defended Fletcher by pointing out that the Church of England works on the principle that there are no fixed criteria for the determination of theological truth and error.
Criticisms
Legalists would say that it is far too subjective and it is too much moral responsibility for a single person to handle
Thomas Hobbes - State of Nature - Believes that people are ultimately driven by selfishness to an inescapable fear of death and so no person can truly make a 'self-sacrificing' decision
Pope Pius the XII - Contra Doctrinam - Confuses the nature of conscience saying that it is generative rather than an inherited faculty
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Can lead to bad consequences for other involved as it puts too much moral responsibility on someone for what could be an intensely stressful situation.
Situationalists fail to respect the laws and principles of their society instead encouraging people to follow their own personal inclinations which can lead to immoral actions
Can be difficult and complicated to follow if someone does not have a thorough Christian education like Fletcher had
Six Propositions
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2. Love is the only norm
We only think a law is good if it is loving (e.g. abortion is seen as unloving to the unborn by pro-life while it is seen as loving to pro-choice)
Agapic love is non-reciprocal and always seeks the best interests of our neighbour (e.g. Mrs Bergmeier)
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Biblical Evidence
Luke 10:25-37 - The Good Samaritan - Lawyer and Pharisee not assisting the person are following Jewish laws about cleanliness however it is the Samaritan that disobeys Jewish law and assists the person that is applauded by Jesus
Pikuach Nefesh - Even the intensely legalistic Judaism (which takes its 613 Mitzvot from Leviticus among other places) has a policy of disregarding nearly all of those laws in order to save a love (clearly a motivation of selfless love)
Matthew 9:20-22 - Jesus heals the bleeding woman - Again Jesus goes against the Jewish law by touching a supposedly 'unclean' women and healing her
Mark 2:23-25 - Disciples eat on the Sabbath - Jesus prioritises the hunger of his disciples over the Jewish laws of the Sabbath (acting out of love)