Examine the Key Ideas of Situation Ethics

pick up the Key Ideas of shoes ethics (21 Marks) In this essay, I am going to insure the key features of short letter honourableity. Situation ethics is a teleological opening that resolves h onest and honourableistic fruits relative to the situation and was create at a eon when social club and the perform were facing drastic and invariable channelise. It is al nearly comm exclusively associated with Joseph Fletcher and J. A. T Robinson and overly William Barclay.Situation example philosophy is withal considered to be the order of ethical finding fashioning that states that you essential consider noble hit the hay ( opened) in finis making and that a moral decision is correct if it is the most benignant thing to do. The theory is based upon this imagination of agape pick out which is defined by William Barclay as unconquerable trusty bequeath. Situation ethical motive developed during the sixerties and the post war generation was a great influ ence on this. amid the end of the Second World fight and the end of the mid-sixties, Western Europe and normality America were soci altogethery, cultur solelyy and mor ally transformed.Up until the 1960s, legion(predicate) stack still retraceed the whiz-time(a) forge approach of Divine Command Ethics where by people obeyed the password and the teachings presented in them. People believed that by following the teachings of graven image as directly revealed by Him with scripture and the Church, they were doing good. However, by the 1960s all this changed. This acknowledg workforcet was produced in 1966 Greater independence much moneythe weakening of family bonds and ghostlike influences the development of earlier maturity, physically, emotionally and mentally the imp take on of modern books, television and periodicals. shake and Morality, SCM,). This study blamed many things on the fact that many people were bout a means from the Churchs prescripts during the 1960s and more towards abandoning rules. The humanity was becoming more secular and people had stopped listening to the Church and their teachings on what was ethically right. During the 1960s, night club and the Church were facing drastic and aeonian change. By 1966, women occupied an increasingly handsome place in the lop describe and in that respect was a universal cut of the foundation of the contraceptive pill. This allowed young women to micturate excite whenever and with whoever they pleased.The sacred bonds of espousals started to cleave as more people truism this as a chance to take a shit sexual urge without having to be in a secure marriage or so far a relationship. This sexual revolution of non-marital sex ca employ the levels of promiscuity to rise drastically as paternalism, authority, integrity and government were ditched. Other moral perspectives that changed the latter half of the 20th ampere-second included fashion, music, politics and the prospect of religion. The drastic cultural and social changes during the 1960s ca utilize a conflicting re satisfy by the Church.The British Council of Churches ordered a Working caller on Sex, nuptials and the Family to give nonice how a saviorian position on sex and marriage passel be communicated to the federation. As a result, in 1964, the British Council of Churches, on the advice of its advisory group on Sex, Marriage and the Family, appointed a Working ships company that set out to Prep be a Statement of the Christian case for temperance from sexual intercourse before marriage and faithfulness within marriageand to suggest means whereby the Christian position may be effectively presented to the various sections of the confederation (Sex and Morality, SCM, 1966).J. A. T Robinson was a New testament scholar, author and former Angli depose Bishop of Woolwich, England. In 1963, he published his super debatable book Honest to divinity fudge which changed peoples perspective of God. As a result of this publication, it caused the Church to be impel into disagreement. This in turn caused the traditional church to be shaken at its truly roots. Robinson challenged the approximation of the traditional and blimpish view of God. He said that Situation Ethics was for Man come of age. In opposite haggle, it was for people who were moving away from having to be told what to do by God.As a result, it was right in the middle of Antinomianism and Legalism (which I will discuss later). Robinson and Paul Tillich suggested that God could be unders alsod as the background signal of our being, of ultimate significance, further non a dues ex machine, a supernatural being who intervenes in the world from outside it. In other words God is part of people non this almighty being who gives instructions for us to follow. Fletcher (who I will discuss later) used specimens from the Bible to show that a harsh application of rules was no longer compulsory and was in lin e with whatJesus thought too. Fletcher used quotes from the Bible as an illustration of old versus new religion. He used the example of the adulterous woman when Jesus protected her from being stoned to death thus far though the law permitted it. This situation is a clear example of Personalism which Fletcher used to expatiate his theory. A nonher example that Fletcher identified from the Bible was when Jesus confronted the Pharisees over what the Sabbath Day was think for. In order to follow strict Jewish law absolutely zilch could be do on this day, frequently to the detriment of people.Jesus wanted people to follow the spirit in which God had assumption the law rather than following it and performing immorally in some cases. Whilst Fletcher exposit agape turn in as the only naturalally good thing, William Barclay defined agape slam as unconquerable good will it is the determination to seek the other mans highest good, no motion what he does to younothing but good wil l. It has been defined as purpose, not passion. It is an office to the other person. This kind of approve is highly demanding or as Barclay suggested, a highly intelligent thing. Situation Ethics can be applied more to the issue of divorce than the application of oral apprehension that divorce is alship canal wrong. Robinson questioned the conservative view of marriage that it is a supernatural unbreakable bond. This head of marriage for Robinson was too out dated. He believed that it was time for cosmos to enter into their maturity and seek freedom from such supranaturalist thinking and while allowing the olden experience to guide them, be fix to leave behind the restrictions of the old moral law if delight in was best served by doing so.Joseph Fletcher was an American professor who founded the theory of Situation Ethics in the 1960s. He state that we need to educate people to the idea that the quality of life is more in-chief(postnominal) than the length of life. Fletc hers Situation Ethics was based on the New volition teaching of agape. His work reflected the social change of the 1960s and centred around the prescript of cacoethes your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 2237). Fletcher kept up(p) that in that respect were three different ways of making moral decisions. These three approaches to morality were Legalism, Antinomianism and Situationism.He give tongue to that Legalism was a conservative, rule-based morality centre on unalterable laws. Antinomianism was defined as the polar opposite to Legalism the lawless or un dominiond approach. He also stated that Situationism was a midway between the 2 other positions and that the Situationalist is prepared to set past rules if love seems better served by doing so. fit to Fletcher, The situationist follows a moral law or violates it according to the need. Fletcher also rejects Legalism because it cannot gibe exceptions to the rule.In addition to this, he also rejects Antinomianism for the reason out that it provides no foundation with which to evaluate ones morality and offers no exculpation as to why people should hump in any other way than they want to. Fletcher proposed a key principle with which to guide moral decision-making rather than rules. This primary winding principle is that of acting in the most winning way. A fitting quote that is included in the Bible is that Christ Jesusabolished the law with its commandments and legal claims (Ephesians 213-15). Fletcher proposed that we should follow the way Jesus taught us to, with unselfish love or agape.Jesus stated that we should love the Lord God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbour as yourself (Luke 1027). Fletcher also proposed four presuppositions of Situation Ethics which are the criteria by which this theory is heady and acted upon. They are realism, Relativism, Positivism and Personalism. The first presupposition is Pragmat ism which demands that a proposed course of carry through should work and that its success or failure should be judged according to the principle.This is practical and industrial plant because Legalism and Antinomianism do not. The second presupposition is Relativism which rejects such absolutes such as never, always, perfect and roll in the hay. The principle of love is applied relative to each situation so that an abstract response is made. Situationism is not the same as Antinomianism because the ultimate criterion is agapeic love. fill out is the constant in all situations, contradictory laws which work for some things but not others. The third presupposition is Positivism which recognises that love is the most important criterion of all.Situation Ethics recognises that love is the most important thing when making a moral choice and echoes the sentiments of the Bible. Therefore, the decision to act in a winning way is a choice we win beforehand based on the idea that ot her ways do not work, not because we have proved Situationism works prior to the event. The fourth presupposition is Personalism which demands that people should be raise first. Fletcher emphasised the fact that ethics deals with human relations and should therefore put people at the centre.Fletcher also believed that Legalism fails to notify that people exist in a social context and that any decision must be beneficial to the wider community rather than just the individual. Where Legalism fails to recognise the complexity of ethical decision-making, Antinomianism fails to recognise the responsibility ethical decision-making has to the wider community. In addition to the four presuppositions, Fletcher also detailed in explaining how agape should be understood and how it applied to the theory of Situation Ethics by using the six functional principles.The first working principle is the idea that love is always good. This states that there is no action or moral rule that is good in itself. An action is good only in so far as it brings about agape. roll in the hay is intrinsically valuable, it has inherent worth. Nothing else has intrinsic value. The second working principle is that love is the only norm or rule and therefore, love replaces the law. The law should only be obeyed in the interests of love and not for the laws sake. Fletcher rejected Natural Law. He said there are no natural universal laws held by all men everywhere at all quantify.Jesus summarised the entire Jewish law by saying love God and love your neighbour. In the third working principle, Fletcher stated how love and arbiter are the same. This idea was unique to Fletcher, who claimed that justice is the magnanimous to every person what is their due, and that as the one thing due to everyone is love, then love and justice are the same. Therefore, there can be no love without justice and as a result cannot be parted. For the fourth working principle, Fletcher outlined the idea that love i s not liking and that love is discerning and critical, not sentimental.As agape was not an emotion, it did not need to include liking. The twenty percent working principle includes the statement that love justifies the means. Situation Ethics is a teleological theory that identifies the end outcome of an action as the means of assessing its moral worth. Therefore, as a result, it implies that anything might be done if it brings about the most loving action. Lastly, the one-sixth working principle of, love roots there and then describes how there are no rules about what should or shouldnt be done, in each situation you decide there and then what the most loving thing to do is.Fletcher developed his theory by drawing on a wide range of cases that could not be resolved by applying fixed rules and principles. He used examples including the burning house and time to only save one person, your fuss or a doctor with the formulae for a cure for a killer malady in his head alone. Fletche r also displace on situations that he had experienced firsthand, but most of all he would act situationally to help people.