Outline the Six Fundamental Principles of Joseph Fletchers Situation Ethics

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Outline the Six Fundamental Principles of Joseph Fletcher’s Situation Ethics (30 Marks)

Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991) is the father of Situation Ethics. He explains his theory in his book ‘Situation Ethics: The New Morality’ which was published in 1966. He said that we should always use the principle of agape when faced with a moral dilemma as this will lead us to the most moral decision. He said we should always apply this principle in everyday life and treat no two situations as identical. Situation Ethics is therefore both a relativistic and consequentialist theory. It is seen as a radical Christian approach to ethics as it goes against the legalistic approach that Christians had followed before, the theory also ‘suggests’ that Jesus was a situationist as many stories in the bible tell us of how he made decisions based on each individual situation and was not lead by the rules set out in the Old Testament; ‘The Ten Commandments’.

Joseph Fletcher believed that there are three approaches to ethics. These include: The legalistic approach, which means that a set of laws or rules should be followed through which we make every moral decision. The Antinomian approach, meaning that there are no laws, rules or principles that must be followed when making a decision and the situation itself will provide the answer. And The Situational Approach which was founded by Fletcher. Situation Ethics is split into two guiding principles: The Four Working Principles and The Six Fundamental Propositions. Both of these were devised by Fletcher to help a person come to a decision about what the most loving thing to do would be in any given situation. The focus of this essay will be on The Six Fundamental Propositions. The Six Fundamental Propositions or principles outline the reasons behind why we should follow the principle of agape to make moral decisions.

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The first proposition is: ‘Only one thing is intrinsically good; namely love: nothing else at all.’ This particular proposition outlines the fact that according to situation ethics agape love is good in itself; without the application of love an action can neither be described as good or evil. An action can only be described as good or evil depending on the circumstance and consequence. This proposition explains that agape love shows purity.

The Second Propositions says: ‘The ruling norm of Christian decision is love: nothing else.’ This particular proposition is derived from the New Testament when Jesus replaced the ...

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