Identify the distinctive characteristics of situation ethics. ii.) Consider the view that situation ethics helps to clarify the relationship between religion and morality.
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Bi. Identify the distinctive characteristics of situation ethics.
ii.) Consider the view that situation ethics helps to clarify the relationship between religion and morality.
Situation ethics is a teleological theory where the morality is dependent on outcomes and not concerned with action motives or intentions, the ends justify the means. This is because it is consequentialist. Situation ethics is also relative and religious as the goodness of actions depend on the circumstances. It is based upon the life of Jesus and the Christian principle of love. Joseph Fletcher developed his theory in the 1960s when he was a Christian Episcopal priest. “The morality of an action depends on the situation.” Other moral principles can be dismissed if in certain situations love is best served. A distinctive characteristic of situation ethics is its focus on agape love; it is the Greek for unconditional love.
The principle of Utility, which is another distinctive characteristic of situation ethics, is that love is the means of identifying goods. The Agapeistic calculus is a calculus introduced by Fletcher so that the Christian principle of love could be persevered when an individual is assessing an ethical situation. Agape translates in Christian terms, the unconditional love that they most show their neighbor. ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself’ and "... goodwill at work in partnership with reason" in seeking the "neighbour's best interest with a careful eye to all the factors in the situation.” Situation ethics uses principles to illuminate the situation, but not to direct the action. There are four presumptions of Situation Ethics, pragmatism, relativism, positivism and personalism. Pragmatism is that the proposed course of action must work in practice and work towards love, relativism is where there are no fixed rules because Situationists believe that all circumstances are different. Positivism means you have to start with a positive choice and voluntarily want to do good and personalism means to put people first, people are therefore more important than rules. For example, Jesus healed on the Sabbath day, putting people over rules. There are also six fundamental principles of Situation Ethics. The first one is love only is always good, love replaces law, with justice comes love, love is unconditional, the end must be the loving result and a situation is deemed right if it is the most loving thing to do.
