Situation ethics revision

What is Situation Ethics?

Situation Ethics is the method of ethical decision making that states that you must consider

“noble love” (agape) in decision making, and that a moral decision is correct if it is the most

loving thing to do.

Joseph Fletcher

“morality of an action depends on the situation”

The Theory of Situation Ethics

Fletcher maintains that there are essentially three different ways of making moral decisions.1.Legalistic ethics2.Antinomian ethics 3.Situation ethics

Legalistic Ethics

• Has a set of moral rules and regulations.• Judaism and Christianity legalistic ethical

traditions.• problems – life too complex require

additional laws. Murder, killing in self defence, killing in war, killing unborn human beings etc.

Antinomian ethics

• This is the reverse of legalistic ethics

• It means against the law.

• A person who uses this doesn’t have an ethical system at all.

• They enter each moral decision as if it were unique.

• Making a moral decision is a matter of impulse

• Fletcher criticises the antinomian approach because it is unprincipled.

Situation Ethics

Situationist

• Situations ethics is in the middle.

• This indicates that Fletcher appreciates the usefulness of both legalism and antinomianism in ethical decision making but thinks that they are extremes.

SituationismSituationism antinomianismantinomianismlegalismlegalism

based on 1 principle only – to do the most loving thing - and so it is relevant to everyone,

everywhere and in any set of circumstances.

It also means that nothing is always right or always wrong – it is situational so what may be right in one situation, may be immoral in

another situation.

But what is love??

No just any kind of love

unconditional and the sort from one human to another. It is not based on romance, sexual attraction or any

relationship at all. It can be from one stranger to another, as well as between people who know each

other.

It is the love that Jesus and St Paul talked about in the Bible - AGAPE

The Result

• To many people this was a really popular and interesting idea.

• To religious people it was an abomination and flew in the face of what the Church stood for

SITUATION ETHICS

• Situation ethics is sensitive to variety and complexity in the individual situation.

• In order to ensure a person enacting conscience chooses the correct decision Fletcher envisioned principles to illuminate the situation but not direct action

• Fletcher divides his principles into two categories.

• The six fundamental principles

• The four presumptions (or four working principles)

Fletcher and the 4 working principles

Fletcher came up with the 4 Working Principles

in order to help people understand how

situation ethics works and why it is a good idea.

Situation ethics is good as it is always what works for the best.

No matter what the situation, going with what is the most loving thing can only lead to more good than bad

Love is the only thing that is relevant to all situations unlike laws which work for some things but not others. Situation Ethics uses 1 principle so is easy to remember

Love is the most important principle of all and freely chosen. Situation Ethics recognises that love is the most important thing when making a moral choice and echoes the opinions of the Bible

Situation Ethics puts human beings and their concerns are at the centre of morality unlike laws and rules which often seem to be unfavourable to a person’s wellbeing. This follows Jesus’ example “man was not made for the Sabbath” Jesus put love in front if laws

6 Fundamental Principles of Christian love

spell out what agape relate closely to Biblical

teaching on what Christian love should be.

The 6 Fundamental

Principles

1. Love only is always good

Actions are only good if they help humans (showing love for one another) and they are bad if they hurt people.

2. Love is the only norm

Jesus and St Paul replaced the Torah with the principle of love, in the past Christians have broken the 10 Commandments in order to do the right thing e.g. Bonhoeffer tried to kill Hitler

3. Love and justice are the same, and love is

justice distributed

Love and justice can not be separated.

4. Love wills the neighbour's good, whether we like him or

not.

Your neighbour is anybody and agape love goes out to everyone

5. Love is the only means

When weighing up a situation, one must consider what you want the outcome to be and what you need to do to get there. Fletcher said the end must be the most loving thing

6. Love decides there and then

Whether something is right or wrong depends on the situation and can’t be pre-determined

So where did the idea of situation ethics come from?

The basic idea was concerned with Christian ethics

based on the teachings of Jesus and the bible.

Arguments Jesus had about the love over law was

expressed in the bible

Examples of love over law

Jesus commented on the divorce law – He said that the divorce law had been given as a response to man’s “sinful nature” but now people had evolved and should not need to be told what to do now.

The adulterous woman - Jesus prevents a woman being stoned even though the law allowed her to be. This is evidence of personalism too

characteristics/principles on which Situation Ethics is based:

• It is an attempt to link Christianity with new morality for ‘man come of age’

• It focus’ on Jesus’ dialogue

• It is the rejection of absolute rules as it solves moral dilemmas situationally and circumstantially

• It focus’ on positivism and personalism

IMPORTANCE OF SITUATION IN MORAL DECISION MAKING

the situationist approach

1. The situation is an important factor in moral decision-making and influences whether the rule should be set aside.

2. Reason is to be the instrument of moral judgements

3. Moral decisions are hypothetical

4. The deciding factor is love

The situation• The situation is an important factor in moral decision-making

and influences whether the rule should be set aside.

• Situations are important because they are all unique. No matter what situation you are in no two situations are exactly the same.

• Therefore a rule cannot apply to all situations.

• Each person approaches the situation with an understanding of a set of rules. However situation ethics says that it is not necessary that they follow them.

• In each situation you make a judgement based on the foreseen consequences.

• EXAMPLE?

The situation

• In each situation you are assessing the consequences.

• If the consequences of the rule produce the most ‘love’ you follow the rule.

• If the consequences require the rule be set aside to produce the most ‘love’ you set aside the rule and act according to what you think will produce the most love.

• This is a teleological judgement because it is based on consequences not action

Hypothetical judgements

• Situations believe that moral decisions are hypothetical

• This means that they are dependent on some other issue being so in order to be true.

• For example the statement “charity is good” is not enough. It requires the additional ‘if’.

• It becomes “charity is good if... It produces the most love.”

love

• The deciding factor is love or agape.

• You must seek to maximise the most love in any situation.

• This is not romantic love or erotic love.

• It is a selfless love a Self sacrificing love with benefits others before it benefits you.

How practical is it ?

Flexible and practical

• It considers the situation and consequences e.g. a pregnancy as a result of rape.

• Natural law is inflexible.

• it therefore gives it a dynamism that can free up deadlocked moral dilemmas.

• You simply step away from the law.

• Embryo research, genetic engineering, environmental issues

Follows the teachings of jesus

• It’s only absolute principle is agape love.

• This is a core belief of Jesus

• he did not judge prostitutes or outcasts

• He broke the Sabbath rules and put people first.

• He healed people who needed healing and fed the poor.

• Even in death he put himself before others through the crucifixion.

• Examples?

Whole situation

• It considers the whole situation and whilst respecting

the laws is prepared to set them aside if agape love

requires.

• Stealing is okay to save a family from starving.

• the individual situation is what matters not the

overriding law.

• Example?

Forward looking

• It was described by Bishop Robinson as an ‘ethic for man coming of age’

• which means we can be trusted to assess dilemmas and come to our decisions using Agape rather than following rules blindly.

• It is an ethic for the new culture of humanity where everyone is equal.

• Is this Idealistic?

HOW COMPATIBLE SITUATION ETHICS IS WITH OTHER CHRISTIAN ETHICAL

SYSTEMS?

Christianity and situation ethics

• As a priest, Joseph Fletcher claimed situational ethics to be a true set of Christian morals that tie in with Biblical teaching.

• However, not all people agree with him on this, so he presented some passages of relevant biblical scripture, and left it up to the reader as to whether the teachings of situational ethics are Biblical or not

Why some Christians use situation ethics as a guide for making moral decisions

• Jesus seemed to follow situation ethics because he over-ruled what the Old Testament said when he thought it was unloving. For example, he healed people on the Sabbath because he said it was more important to do good than to obey the Sabbath laws.

• They think Christians should only do what will produce good results such as stealing the nuclear weapons and allowing the 12 year old to have an abortion.

• Jesus said the greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbour, meaning Christians should always do what will have the most loving results.

• They believe that Christianity is a religion of love and so Christians should make their moral decisions based on love not laws.

Why some Christians think situation ethics is wrong

• They believe the Bible is God's word to Christians about how to live, so it should be the basis for moral decision-making.

• They believe they should follow the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount rather than relying on their own ideas.

• They think the Church knows better what Christians should do than an individual Christian.

• They claim you can never be sure what the consequences might be. They use examples such as a doctor in a remote who has one unit of blood to save the lives of two people (an old alcoholic and a young mother). Following situation ethics he would use it for the mother, but actually the mother was a child abuser and the old man was about to discover a cure for cancer. So the doctor would have been better to follow the Christian teaching and given them half each.

• Traditional Christians would believe in the rules of the old testament and would not take into account the circumstances

Roman Catholic Church Criticism

• Traditional• closely follow the instructions of the Bible

Pope banned Situation Ethics from being discussed. called situation ethics

‘an individualistic and subjective appeal to the concrete circumstances of actions to justify decisions in opposition to the natural law or God’s revealed will’.

So in other words he said that it was wrong to break God’s laws

Pope

Situation ethics is subjective because decisions are made fromwithin the situation as it is perceived to be. Situation ethics could prove unworkable because it isn’t easy todetermine all the consequences of an action.

Situation ethics seems to be prepared to accept any action at all if

it fits the required criteria. What is believed to be a loving end by some could justify actions

that many people would regard as wrong.

Another Christian criticism

9 The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbour as yourself.”

Love does no harm to its neighbour.

Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.”

people do need to follow God’s laws in order to follow Jesus’ teaching on how agape is spread

proportionalism

• This is a fusion of natural law and situation ethics.

• Created in an attempt to fuse the important advancements of situation ethics but retain the traditional interpretations of natural law.

• It is supposed to be a midway between the two. proportionalismproportionalism Situation

ethicsSituation ethics

natural law

natural law

proportionalism

• Situation ethics opposes natural law on several grounds.

• Natural law states that actions are intrinsically good/bad according to the law of nature.

• Situation – whatever produced the most happiness.

• Natural law deontological

• Situation teleological

proportionalism

• Bernard Hoose modifies both theories.

• He comes up with the maxim

• “It is never right to go against a principle unless there is a proportionate reason which would justify it.”

• This means that it helps deal with controversial ethical reasons but allows the rules to take priority.

• This was thought to overcome many of the issues facing situation ethics.

• Example- having an abortion if the baby would not survive in the womb

proportionalism

• It is not a new idea

• It can be found in Aquinas creation of the Just war principles which makes it possible for a church that opposes killing to justify war in particular circumstances.

• It other words the basic rule of ‘do not kill’ usually applies, but there are certain proportionate circumstances when it can be right to overrule the moral principle.

issues

• There is no guidance on when you can put aside a moral law

• It does not help the everyday person as there is no working definition of proportion

• There is no understanding of how it can produce a consistent ethical theory.

• It also does not accept the supremacy of Jesus as Fletcher originally proposed.

• The church still has ultimate authority.

review

1. Contextualism

– The church should make the decisions not the individual based on love

1. No individual enough

2. To much power to the church

2. Proportionalism

– The law stands unless there is a proportional reason to avoid it.

1. No clear definition of proportion

2. To much power to the church

Overall strengths

1. That it provides a clear alternative to Christian ethics that is consistent to the Jesus represented in the Gospels. Some would argue that it is more in line with Jesus’ teachings than following ALL the rules in the Bible

2. Situation ethics is flexible and practical. It takes in to account how complex human life is and can make tough decisions when, from a legalistic stance, all actions seem wrong.

3. It is easy to understand: you follow a single principle

4. You don’t have to follow a conventional rule, if that goes against your deepest sense of what love requires.

5. It is based on love, which, rationally as well as emotionally, is a key feature of all moral systems.

6. It takes circumstances into account

Overall weaknesses

1. It is subjective – we don’t always have the fact to make a sound decision

2. It is individualistic – what is the most loving thing to one, is not to another

3. It is prepared to accept any actions as long as the outcome is supposed to be loving

4. It is inconsistent with some teachings in the Bible

5. How often do we face extreme cases where it is obvious what the most loving thing is? People need to be practical and Fletcher’s illustrations aren’t relevant for most people

6. People need laws and rules to spell out behaviour in order to keep us all safe and singing from the same song sheet

7. People would mean to do the most loving thing but our personal preferences and wants will always get in the way

8. It is not easy to determine all the consequences of an action.

Application

1. What options are available in this situation?

2. Which of these options gives most consideration to the people in the situation?

3. Pragmatically, how likely is each option to succeed?

4. Regardless of moral laws, how loving (in an unconditional agape sense) will the outcome or consequences be?

5. To what extent does each option seem to reflect a love that supports the whole community – just love?