SITUATION ETHICS

Fletcher argued that love was what morality should serve.  when making a moral decision, you
should set aside rules if love would be better served by doing so.

AGAPE:

- Love = comes first even if it means being lawfully disobedient.

- Agape  unconditional love that all Christians should have for one another.
 'The situationist follows a moral law or violates it according to love's need' (Fletcher,
Situation Ethics).
- New Testament  Jesus taught his message of love through actions as well as teachings.

SIX PRINCIPLES:

1. Love = only intrinsically good thing.  actions are good/evil depending on if they promote
most loving outcome.
2. Love = ruling norm in decision making + replaces all laws.
3. Love + justice = the same  justice = love that is distributed.
 Moral problems = tension between “justice” + “love.” Acting justly = acting out of
love.
4. Love wills the neighbour’s good regardless of whether the neighbour is liked or not.
5. Love is the goal of an act  justifies any means to achieve that goal.
 The end goal must be the most loving outcome. Anything done to achieve end goal =
justified.
6. Love decides on each situation individually without a set of laws to guide it.
 No governing rules. In each context  right action will be one that brings the most
loving end.

FOUR WORKING PRINCIPLES:

 Personalism - Persons = centre of situation ethics - not laws.

 Pragmatism - Based on experience rather than on theory.
 Relativism - Making the absolute laws of Christian ethics relative.
 Positivism - Begins with belief in reality and importance of love.

CONSCIENCE:

- Conscience = weighing up of possible decision before it is taken  Fletcher says this is done
creatively.
- Aquinas = ‘reason seeking understanding.’  Vardy = Aquinas’ definition is closest to truth.
- Conscience ≠ intuition, channel for Divine Guidance, internalised individual values and part
of reason that makes value judgements.

DEBATES ON SITUATION ETHICS:

Advantages for decision-making:

- Flexible = allows people to use free will to decide what the most loving action is. No
objective right/wrong answer in any situation.
- Not rigid + devoid of any emotion  allows people to show empathy when appropriate.
- It is based on one simple rule: namely love.  relative; not restricted by moral absolutes.
- Based on rule of love not individualistic because one must always do most loving thing.
- Jesus applied situation ethics + risked death by healing someone on the Sabbath.
- Many things vast majority of society would agree on when it comes down to love.
SITUATION ETHICS

Disadvantages for decision-making:

- William Barclay = humans cannot be trusted to do right thing, would only work ‘if all men
were angels.’
- Supported by Augustine’s interpretation of humanity (fall of man).
o Humans = inclined to sin and are selfish.  cannot be trusted to make correct
ethical choices.
- 1952 Pope Pius XII called Situationism, ‘an individualistic and subjective’ theory which will
‘justify decisions in opposition to the natural law’.
- No boundaries in situation ethics  does not abide by any legal system.
- Christian love can become individualistic  too much control or influence + people tend to
be selfish.
- Augustine + Thomas Hobbes  human nature to be instinctively selfish.
- Subjectivity can never be standard for human conduct:
o “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes” (Proverbs 16:2).

IS FLETCHER’S AGAPE RELIGIOUS?

Yes:

- Situation ethics = linked to Golden Rule of Jesus (‘treat others as we would like to be
treated’) and teaching of St. Paul (outlined letter to the Corinthians that love = most
important virtue.)
- Jesus regularly put love above law - healed a man on the Sabbath.

No:

- Situation ethics = relative to situation - unlike Catholic Church with set guidelines.
o Catholic Church sets out laws + teachings to follow
o Situation ethics = individualistic. Church teachings are based on hierarchy, instituted
by the Pope and the Cardinals, not everyone’s opinion
- Catholic Church = very clear rules regarding the sanctity of life
o Catholic Church = always view the ending of human life by another as wrong.
o Situation ethics makes this decision relative to the situation.