Outline of Situation Ethics
i) Outline the important concepts of either situation ethics or utilitarianism ii) To what extent are these important concepts undermined by relevant criticisms?
Situation Ethics is a normative, relative ethical theory. It emerged at a time when the Church and society were changing, women were given a more prominent status in the workplace and the paternalism of society was decreasing. Thee main factor of change was the sexual revolution of the 1960's, people were beginning to express their individualism and factors such as music, drugs and fashion were changing rapidly. The invention of the pill provided people with a reliable contraception and this lead to pre-marital sex becoming a norm. The Church was outraged by this as it is seen as a major sin to have sex before marriage. Due to the reaction of the Church, American Theologian Joseph Fletcher wrote a book named 'Situation Ethics' which outlined a new moral approach to Christian ethical decision making.
An important concept of situation ethics is Fletchers idea that the absolute rule was that of love. He claimed that the morality of a decision depends on its situation. Situation ethics was based on the concept of love. There are 3 different types of love is Greek, eros which means erotic love, philia which meant friendship love and agape love which was selfless love, Christians would recognize this as neighbor love which Jesus demonstrated by sacrificing himself for humanity. Fletcher believed in agape love, and based his theory on it. He said that love is the important thing and is even seen taking priority in the bible as the early Christians based their fellowship on love.
Another important concept of the theory is Fletchers claim that there are 3 approaches to ethics, the legalistic, which was fixed moral rules such as the Decalogue. The antinomian which meant to rules whatsoever, purely ad hoc. The third was the Fletchers approach which was the situationalist approach, this as more flexible than
Situation Ethics is a normative, relative ethical theory. It emerged at a time when the Church and society were changing, women were given a more prominent status in the workplace and the paternalism of society was decreasing. Thee main factor of change was the sexual revolution of the 1960's, people were beginning to express their individualism and factors such as music, drugs and fashion were changing rapidly. The invention of the pill provided people with a reliable contraception and this lead to pre-marital sex becoming a norm. The Church was outraged by this as it is seen as a major sin to have sex before marriage. Due to the reaction of the Church, American Theologian Joseph Fletcher wrote a book named 'Situation Ethics' which outlined a new moral approach to Christian ethical decision making.
An important concept of situation ethics is Fletchers idea that the absolute rule was that of love. He claimed that the morality of a decision depends on its situation. Situation ethics was based on the concept of love. There are 3 different types of love is Greek, eros which means erotic love, philia which meant friendship love and agape love which was selfless love, Christians would recognize this as neighbor love which Jesus demonstrated by sacrificing himself for humanity. Fletcher believed in agape love, and based his theory on it. He said that love is the important thing and is even seen taking priority in the bible as the early Christians based their fellowship on love.
Another important concept of the theory is Fletchers claim that there are 3 approaches to ethics, the legalistic, which was fixed moral rules such as the Decalogue. The antinomian which meant to rules whatsoever, purely ad hoc. The third was the Fletchers approach which was the situationalist approach, this as more flexible than