To what extent would you say Situation Ethics is a useful ethical theory?

One weakness of Situation Ethics is that it’s subjective. This means that it isn’t as valid because it relies on one person’s perception of a certain situation. The main question which is raised is how can an individual decide which is the most loving action? This causes problems because we could do an unloving thing and justify it because we think it will cause a loving thing at the end, when really the loving thing will never happen. Situation Ethics could prove unworkable because it’s hard to think and conclude all the consequences of a particular action.

One other weakness is that Situation Ethics is individualistic because everyone sees things from their own perspective. An issue with this is people may pollute unconditional love with selfish human tendencies. Agape love would be an ideal but isn’t realistic. An example is that parents wouldn’t give the same amount of love to a stranger than their own children.

One final weakness is that if it fits with the right criteria, it will accept anything. After mass killings murders and genocide being committed recently. It creates the problem of what people believe the most loving end could justify things what are really wrong. An example is Hitler and the Jews. Hitler caused the execution of 6 million Jews for a better Germany. Hitler felt he was doing a loving thing for Germany and didn’t think about the Jews. Even though genocide would always be considered as wrong.

In conclusion Situation Ethics is a very useful ethical theory because it goes with Jesus’ teachings of love being the most important thing and love being much more important than the law. Another good thing is that it is very flexible and considers the complexities of human life which other ethical theories do not consider such as a legalist. Therefore you can choose the best of a bad situation and make it not as bad. On the other had it does have many weaknesses with the main one being that it really does depend on the person who is making the decision and not actually what is best to do. For example a mad man may have different ideas of good compared to a priest. Also an atheist may have different views to a catholic. So it all depends on the person and as a person they can choose the most loving thing or have a selfish human tendency and do something which would benefit them.