Situational Ethics (pptx)

Morning comes and I must go,day is breaking yonder.

After all the places I have been,I’m going home.

LOVE IS THE ANSWER

I have been to seek the skyto travel on the highway.And the time has come,

I don’t know why, I’m going home.

LOVE IS THE ANSWER

Where is the answer to so many questions

I don’t know, so I begin another journey

Where is the meaning for my world

I see the answer now.

LOVE IS THE ANSWER

Though we came by diff’rent roads,

now we walk together.Stay beside me all our days,

strangers never more.

LOVE IS THE ANSWER

Through the cool of summer rains,

by the heartside fireHere I`ll be with you when

nothing remainsI am home to stay.

LOVE IS THE ANSWER

Love is the answer to so many questions

Now I know, and I can stopmy endless wand’ring

**Love gives the meaning to my world

I see the answer now.

Love!

LOVE IS THE ANSWER

SITUATIONAL ETHICS

Every situation is different. Absolute rules cannot possibly be formulated

to be correct for every situation.

It basically states that sometimes other moral principles can be cast aside in certain situations if love is

best served.

The people behind situation ethics

KEY THINKERS

Saint Paul

The only thing you should owe to anyone is love for one another, for to love the other person is to fulfil the law.

~ Romans 13:8

• Early agape has Christian roots.• Jesus came along and moved away from the rigid rules in the Torah; Saint Paul’s teachings reflect this.

Saint Augustine“Dilige et quod vis, fac”

~ Saint Augustine

• Translates as “love with care and then do what you will”.

• Love is not desire or self-interest.• The good man looks not at not what he has, wants believes or hopes but what he loves.

C.S. LewisAgape “is a real and adorable image of the divine in life”

~ CS Lewis, The Four Loves

• Oxford University scholar and author of “The Chronicles of Narnia”.

• For Lewis, God’s main attribute is his love for humanity.

• Recognises that love is not easy.• He grew in both love and faith with

his wife, especially after she was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

• God wants us to love and be loved, not necessarily the same as being happy.

• Because God loves us, he allows us to suffer...

C.S. Lewis

“Pain is God’s megaphone to

rouse a deaf world. We are like

blocks of stone from which the

sculptor carves the form of

man... the blows of his chisel

which hurt us so much are what

makes us perfect.”

C.S. Lewis

Joseph Fletcher

• “Father of Situation Ethics”• He was born a protestant and

became a priest in the Episcopal Seminary in the 1960's.

• He developed a Christian ethical theory: Situational Ethics

• The moral principles Fletcher is specifically referring to are the moral codes of Christianity and the type of love he is specifically referring to is 'Agape'.

Four Types of Greek Love

Desire love, a lust Friendship love

Storge Family, affection love

Selfless love

Philia

- a selfless and

unconditional love that

involves doing the best for

others, even if they are

unknown.

AGAPE

Properties of Agape

No reason to care,simply care for the sake of it. Altruistic

God is love Built on a Christian foundation

Attitudinal Not emotional

Not preferential,everybody deserves fair treatment Philanthropist

Not reciprocal,nothing in return for lovingSelfless.

Egoism rejected

How does agape differ from other loves? • Philia and eros are selective and

exclusive, not attitudinal nor philanthropist.

Egotistical Mutualistic Agape

Self-interested “I‟ll help you if you help me” Selfless

Legalism Agape Anti-nomianism

Too many laws Too few laws

SITUATION ETHICS:

A MIDDLE ROAD?

• Legalistic Ethics. There is a code of moral law. Your duty is to follow this code no matter how difficult.

• Antinomian Ethics. There are no rules. Do whatever you feel like doing.

• Situation Ethics. Only one rule: follow the most loving course of action.

 Through situational ethics, Fletcher attempted to find a

“middle road” between legalistic and

antinomian ethics.Fletcher believed that there are no absolute laws other

than the law of Agape.

The Four Working Principles

1. Pragmatism - This is that the course of action must be practical and work.

2. Relativism - All situations are always relative; situational ethicists try to avoid such words as “never” and “always”.

3. Positivism - The whole of situational ethics relies upon the fact that the person freely chooses to believe in agape love as described by Christianity.

4. Personalism - Whereas the legalist thinks people should work to laws, the situational ethicist believes that laws are for the benefit of the people.

The Four Working Principles

The Six Fundamental Principles

1.Only one thing is intrinsically good, namely, love: nothing else.

2.The ultimate norm of Christian decisions is love: nothing else.

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

The Six Fundamental Principles

4.Love wills the neighbour’s good whether we like him or not.

5.Only the end justifies the means: nothing else.

6.Decisions ought to be made situationally, not prescriptively.

POSITIVES

• It can be considered as the solution to two tendencies in ethics – legalism and antinomianism. It has one rule: love. The rule of love is prescriptive, other rules merely illuminative.

• It is simple and yet profound. It is not meant to encourage laxity.

POSITIVES

• In grounding his theory in this love, Fletcher seeks to align it with the gospels and the letters of St. Paul.

• It aims to skirt the problems arising when a situation brings important rules into conflict.

NEGATIVES• Fletcher’s theory depends on the

individual’s appraisal of situations. A person, even with the finest of intentions, cannot foresee every consequence of an action, nor realise the number likely to be affected by it.

• St. Paul wrote not that ‘love is the end of the law’ but that ‘love is the fulfilment of the law’.

• The lack of rules leaves moral choices open to subjective thought.

Because of its consequentialism, situational ethics is often confused with utilitarianism, although situational ethics focuses more on creating the greatest amount of love and it also has different origins. Having said that, however, situational ethics can also be classed under the ethical theory genre of "proportionalism" which says that "It is never right to go against a principle, unless there is a proportionate reason which would justify it.”

The Ethical Classification

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM???

Situation Ethics is wrong.Love and Truth should go

together.We cannot justify things

just because of the accompanying situations.