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Explore the concept of love through the lens of AGAPE - the greatest love. Discover how situational ethics challenges traditional moral frameworks by prioritizing unconditional love. Delve into examples and debates on love-based decision-making.
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Finish the sentence: Love is ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Write down what you think it means for an action to be loving? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What is ? .. In English we only have ONEword for LOVE that is often understood to mean romantic love. In Greek they have FOUR words for LOVE... EROS – Passion, desire, romantic love. STORGE – Love for your family. PHILIA – Love for your friends. AGAPE – The greatest love. What do you think is meant by the ‘greatest love’?
The greatest is • AGAPE • - Unconditional love • Loving others as we love ourselves, both friend and enemy. • Not based on a feeling but on action
Situational Ethics is: Based on AGAPE love - For the situationist, all moral decisions are hypothetical - They depend on what best serves AGAPE love.
For example: 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.
It originated with Joseph Fletcher who… • Was a Christian pastor • Wrote a book called Situation Ethics in 1966
He said that: A person should only obey the Bible and the Church if that teaching results in the MOST LOVING thing to do.
He also said... Love should be the only consideration when making a moral decision. A GOOD decision is one that aims to do THE MOST LOVING THING.
He said that we should base decisions on Jesus’ commandment to ‘love your neighbour’. This allows for flexibility and the chance to adapt morals to all situations.
The one who believes in situational ethics 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.
QUESTION: Can humans act out of unconditional love for each other, or are they selfish?
SITUATION ETHICS Is the right thing to do always the most loving thing? On your own or with a partner, come up with two plausible examples whereby killing a human being could serve love. Give a good argument for each. Be prepared to discuss with the class.
Strengths of Situation Ethics • Christian system – seems to be 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.
Weaknesses of Situation Ethics • Can humans, flawed beings, be trusted to act in Love? Even believers in Christ, saved by grace, retain their sinful nature in this world. • The situationist’s “love” is purely subjective; he decides what love is in any given context • That is like suggesting that two football teams play a game in which there will be no rules except “fairness.” But, fairness according to whose judgment? The Cowboys? The Forty-niners? The referees? The spectators? The sports writers?
Weaknesses of Situation Ethics • Situation ethics removes God from the throne as the moral sovereign of the universe, and substitutes man in his place. • Finally, situationism assumes a sort of infallible omniscience that is able to always precisely predict what the most “loving” course of action is. For instance, the theory contends that lying, adultery, murder, etc., could be “moral” if done within the context of love. Yet who is able to foretell the consequences of such acts, and so determine, in advance, what is the “loving” thing to do? • Consider the following scenario………..
Weaknesses of Situation Ethics • A young woman, jilted by her lover, is in a state of great depression. A married man, with whom she works, decides to have an affair with her in order to comfort her. Some, like Fletcher, would argue that what he did might well have been a noble deed, for the man acted out of concern for his friend. • The man’s wife learned of his adulterous adventure, could not cope with the trauma, and eventually committed suicide. One of his sons, disillusioned by the immorality of his father and the death of his mother, began a life of crime, and finally was imprisoned for murder. Another son became a drunkard and was killed in an automobile accident that also claimed the lives of a mother and her two children. • Now, who will contend that that initial act of infidelity was the “loving” thing to do?
