SITUATION ETHICS

1. SITUATION ETHICS Aim: to know the theory of situation ethics and to know the key terms related to this topic. STARTER: Write down what you think it means for an action to be loving? How do you define love?

2. “The morality of an action depends on the situation”. Joseph Fletcher (1963)

3. KEY QUESTIONS • Is moral behaviour about following rules or working things out for ourselves? • Are there unbreakable laws to govern moral behaviour, or should we make our own moral decisions? • Is abortion for health reasons just as bad as abortion for convenience? • Are there ever any situations when you should ignore established moral rules? • When deciding what is right, should the situation be taken into account?

4. Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991) • He was an American professor who founded the theory of Situation ethics in the 1960s. • He was a pioneer in bioethics and was involved in the areas of abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and cloning.

5. Task 1 • A rich man asked a young woman if she would sleep the night with him. She said ‘No’. He then asked if she would do it for £100 000. She said ‘Yes!’ • Is it wrong to have sex for money: • To survive? • For luxury purchases? • To fund a life-saving operation for a friend or relative? In each case, explain your answer. • Why might a person’s answers for a, b and c differ?

6. The 1960s • It has its origins in the radical movements of the late 1950s and 1960s. During the 1960s, America was involved in a long and in the end futile war against communism in Vietnam. Fletcher was opposed to the war and wanted to re-establish what he considered the most important aspect of Christ morality – the law of love.

7. What Inspired situation ethics? • Inspired by Jesus’ gospel message of love (agape). Fletcher appealed to the biblical scholar Rudolf Bultmann, according to whom Jesus taught no ethics other than “love thy neighbour as thyself” =Ultimate Duty • He was believed to have been inspired by "God is Love" (I John 4:8).

8. The Theory of Situation Ethics • Fletcher maintains that there are essentially three different ways of making moral decisions. • Legalistic ethics • Antinomian ethics • Situation ethics

9. Legalistic Ethics • Has a set of moral rules and regulations. • Judaism and Christianity both have legalistic ethical traditions. • Fletcher said this runs into problems – life’s complexities require additional laws. Murder, killing in self defence, killing in war, killing unborn human beings etc. • Becomes complex and like a textbook morality that leaves people simply to check the manual to decide what is right and wrong.

10. Antinomian Ethics • The reverse of legalistic ethics. • It literally means ‘against law’. • A person using antinomianism doesn’t really use an ethical system at all. • He or she enters decision-making as if each occasion was totally unique. Making a moral decision is a matter of spontaneity. • ‘They are, exactly anarchic – i.e. without a rule’. • Fletcher is also critical of this approach.

11. Situation Ethics • One single rule – the rule of agape. This love is not merely an emotion but involves doing what is best for the other person, unconditionally.

12. Situation Ethics • The situationist enters into the moral dilemma with the principles and rules of his or her community. • However, they are prepared to set these rules aside in the situation if LOVE seems better served by doing so.

13. Situation Ethics • ‘The situationist follows a moral law or violates it according to love’s need’. Fletcher • For the situationist, all moral decisions are hypothetical. They depend on what best serves love. • They don’t say that ‘giving to charity is a good thing’. They only say that giving to charity is a good thing if …’ • Lying is justified if love is better served by it.

14. TASK 2 Explain what is meant by the term situation ethics.

15. RECAP WITHOUT LOOKING AT YOUR NOTES!!!! • What is situation ethics? • Who is the main scholar? • What is agape? • What are legalistic ethics? • What are antinomian ethics?

16. Task 3 • A women is suffering from a terminal disease and asked her loving partner to euthanize her. Her partner is now being tried for assisted suicide. • How would legalists, antinomians and situationists judge the partners actions and decide whether the action should be punish or not?

17. TASK 4 Write down a moral dilemma – explain how a legalist, an antinomian and a situationist might approach the dilemma.

18. Situation Ethics • Situation ethics is sensitive to variety and complexity. It uses principles to illuminate the situation, but not to direct the action. • Fletcher divides his principles into two categories: • The four working principles and • The six fundamental principles

19. Four Working Principles • Fletcher stated that there are four basic ‘working principles’ to Situation Ethics: • Pragmatism – moral actions must work or achieve some realistic goal. • Relativism – there are no fixed laws which must always be obeyed. • Positivism – first place is given to Christian love, rooted in faith. • Personalism – people come first, not rules or ideals.

20. Six Fundamental Principles There are also six ‘fundamental principles’: • Only one thing is intrinsically good: love. • The ruling norm of Christian decision is love. • Love and justice are the same. • Love wills the neighbour’s good, whether we like him or not. • Only the end justifies the means, nothing else. • Love’s decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively.

21. Also during the 1960’s, Bishop John Robinson was developing similar views to Fletcher. He was supportive of Situation Ethics and himself wrote: “Assertions about God are in the last analysis assertions about love” Robinson thought that love was at the core of what it meant to be Christian, rather than inflexible absolute moral rules.

22. TASK 5 Try to think of the two most plausible examples whereby killing a human being could serve love. Then evaluate how convincing your arguments are.

23. Strengths of Situation Ethics • Christian system – consistent with the teaching of Jesus. • Flexible relativist system – in enables people to make tough decisions. • It emphasises love (agape) – surely everyone agrees that’s a good thing. • It avoids conflicts of duty, as one experiences in absolutist systems. Where moral rules collide, Situation Ethics gives a way of resolving the conflict: love.

24. Weaknesses of Situation Ethics • Christian system – atheists and those of other faiths might not want to follow the example of Jesus. • Unprincipled relativist system – it could allow for almost any action. • ‘Love’ is very subjective. People naturally will disagree about what loving behaviour is. • It is difficult to predict the future results of actions – making consequentialist decisions based on love is unreliable.

25. On the sheet in front of you, evaluate situation ethics in pairs.

26. John A.T. Robinson Read through his extract on page 9 of your booklet, what do you think he is saying, and what implications does that have on the theory of situation ethics?

27. Bernard Hoose - Proportionalism • Hoose attempted to modify Fletcher’s theory by combining it with elements of Natural Moral Law. He called the resulting theory ‘Proportionalism’. • Hoose gave the maxim: “It is never right to go against a principle unless there is a proportionate reason to justify it.”

28. TASK 6 Can humans act out of unconditional love for each other, or are they selfish?

29. UTILITARIANISM Vs SITUATION ETHICS. • What about the example that an axe wielding manic runs up to you and asks you where the man went that you just saw. • Which ethical approach do you prefer? • Can you think of a situation where utilitarianism is the best ethical theory to use? • Can you think of a situation where situation ethics is the best ethical theory to use?