Give an account of Fletcher's Theory of Situation Ethics.

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Situation Ethics

3.a) Give an account of Fletcher’s Theory of Situation Ethics.

        Joseph Fletcher published his book on Situation Ethics in 1963. It was called ‘Situation Ethics, The New Morality’. The ‘swinging sixties’ as it was known brought about a great deal of social change. There was an opposition to traditional values such as the role of women, so it was a good year to bring about new ideas. Fletcher was an American Anglican Theologian, so his theory had a sense of Christian morality.

Fletcher said there are three ways one can make a decision. The first one is legalism. This is where someone obeys the law, always sticks to what the rules say. The second is antinomianism, when people ignore or go against the law or rules. This theory lies in-between the two, this is known as Situationism. Each situation should be dealt with individually, you should remember the rules but be prepared to put them aside, it allows people to think for themselves. He believed that if one was to always to stick to the rules, it produces the ‘immorality of morality’. This means that in some situations, if you go by what the law says, the outcome will be immoral. For example if a mother killed someone to defend her children and she was condemned for it, this would be immoral. A situationist would look at the outcome and not see this as an immoral action as the woman was doing the loving thing by protecting her children.

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The point of situation ethics is not to forget the rules, a situationist does not start from nothing. We need the rules as a basis, but the outcome of the decision must be love. Love is the most important issue in Situation Ethics, the whole theory centres around it. Fletcher said that ‘the only absolute thing was that of love. In any given situation, the right thing to do was what love required’. When making a moral decision, you must look at the outcome to decide the correct choice. One can do whatever he seems appropriate as long as the ...

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Here's what a star student thought of this essay

Quality of writing is excellent- relevant key words such as moral/immoral, unconditional love,legalism and absolute. The essay doesn't seem to be finished though so student cannot be punished on poor grammar in the last paragraph. Overall, spelling and punctuation are good.

Each paragraph is concise and relates to the question well however as this is an A level piece, a higher level of analysis would be required. The essay is too brief to be an exam question. The student could've gone into more detail about the four presuppositions and six propositions which would have shown more knowlege of Fletchers theory of situation ethics.

Well structured and focused essay; Fletchers main theories on situation ethics are discussed well. The first paragraph which gives an account on the background of Fletcher is good as it clearly shows understanding of how he brought about his ideas. For example when student mentions 'love', we know that he is referring to it in a Christian view as s/he has mentioned that "he had a sense of Christian morality". Good use of examples throughout the essay; aids the clarity of the point being made. More key words could be added such as autonomy- ability to make a choice.