Examine the Key Ideas of Situation Ethics

Examine the Key Ideas of attitude honourables (21 Marks) In this essay, I am going to examine the key features of postal service ethics. Situation morality is a teleological surmise that resolves honest and moral issues relative to the feature and was demonstrable at a time when alliance and the church were go ab out(p) drastic and per compositionent change. It is most commonly associated with Joseph Fletcher and J. A. T Robinson and alike William Barclay.Situation Ethics is besides considered to be the method of ethical decision making that states that you must(prenominal) consider noble bed (agape) in decision making and that a moral decision is correct if it is the most engaging thing to do. The supposition is based upon this idea of agape passionateness which is defined by William Barclay as unconquerable unspoiled ordain. Situation Ethics developed during the mid-sixties and the post war generation was a great influence on this. Between the end of the Secon d World War and the end of the sixties, occidental Europe and North America were socially, culturally and morally transformed.Up until the 1960s, some(prenominal) tidy sum still conserveed the old fashioned approach of Divine Command Ethics where by spate obeyed the countersign and the teachings presented in them. People believed that by by-line the teachings of God as directly revealed by Him through scripture and the church, they were doing good. However, by the 1960s all this changed. This quote was produced in 1966 Greater independence much moneythe weakening of family bonds and religious influences the development of earlier maturity, physically, emotionally and mentally the impact of modern newss, television and periodicals. Sex and Morality, SCM,). This study blamed many things on the fact that many people were turning forth from the Churchs rules during the 1960s and more towards abandoning rules. The man was becoming more blase and people had stopped listenin g to the Church and their teachings on what was ethically right. During the 1960s, society and the Church were facing drastic and permanent change. By 1966, women occupied an more and more prominent place in the work force and there was a universal shock of the foundation of the contraceptive pill. This allowed young women to submit trip whenever and with whoever they pleased.The sacred bonds of marriage ceremony started to break as more people cut this as a chance to have sex without having to be in a secure marriage or even a relationship. This inner revolution of non-marital sex ca utilise the levels of promiscuity to rise drastically as paternalism, authority, impartiality and government were ditched. Other moral perspectives that changed the latter half of the 20th speed of light included fashion, music, politics and the view of religion. The drastic cultural and social changes during the 1960s ca utilise a conflicting re treat by the Church.The British Council of Churc hes ordered a Working Party on Sex, Marriage and the Family to give notice how a Christian position on sex and marriage can be communicated to the community. 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 Party that set out to Prep be a Statement of the Christian case for abstinence from inner intercourse before marriage and faithfulness within marriageand to suggest means whereby the Christian position may be effectively presented to the unlike sections of the Community (Sex and Morality, SCM, 1966).J. A. T Robinson was a New volition scholar, author and spring Anglican Bishop of Woolwich, England. In 1963, he published his highly controversial book Honest to God which changed peoples perspective of God. As a result of this publication, it ca utilise the Church to be thrown into disagreement. This in turn caused the handed-down church to be shaken at its very roots. Robinson chall enged the idea of the tralatitious and cautious view of God. He said that Situation Ethics was for human being come of age. In other words, 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 nitty-gritty of Antinomianism and Legalism (which I will discuss later). Robinson and Paul Tillich suggested that God could be mute as the ground of our being, of ultimate significance, tho not a overdues ex machine, a supernatural being who intervenes in the world from outside it. In other words God is part of people not this almighty being who gives instructions for us to follow. Fletcher (who I will discuss later) used examples from the Bible to show that a strict lotion of rules was no longer sine qua noned and was in line with whatJesus thought too. Fletcher used quotes from the Bible as an illustration of old versus new morality. He used the example of the adulterous woman when Jesus saved her from being hopped-up to de ath even though the right permitted it. This situation is a induce example of Personalism which Fletcher used to illustrate his possibility. Another example that Fletcher identified from the Bible was when Jesus confronted the Pharisees over what the Sabbath Day was intended for. In order to follow strict Jewish lawfulness absolutely nothing could be do on this day, often to the detriment of people.Jesus wished people to follow the bosom in which God had given the law rather than following it and acting immorally in some cases. Whilst Fletcher described agape make out as the only intrinsically good thing, William Barclay defined agape love as unconquerable good will it is the determination to seek the other mans highest good, no matter what he does to younothing but good will. It has been defined as purpose, not passion. It is an attitude to the other person. This kind of love is highly demanding or as Barclay suggested, a highly intelligent thing. Situation Ethics can be a pplied more to the issue of divide than the application of oral judgement that divorce is always wrong. Robinson questioned the conservative view of marriage that it is a supernatural unbreakable bond. This idea of marriage for Robinson was too out dated. He believed that it was time for humans to enter into their maturity and seek liberty from such(prenominal) supranaturalist thinking and while allowing the past puzzle to guide them, be ready to leave behind the restrictions of the old moral law if love was best served by doing so.Joseph Fletcher was an American professor who founded the theory of Situation Ethics in the 1960s. He say that we need to recrudesce people to the idea that the quality of life is more important than the length of life. Fletchers Situation Ethics was based on the New Testament teaching of agape. His work reflected the social change of the 1960s and centred around the article of faith of neck your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 2237). Fletcher main tained that there were one-third different ways of making moral decisions. These three approaches to morality were Legalism, Antinomianism and Situationism.He stated that Legalism was a conservative, rule-based morality focused on unalterable laws. Antinomianism was defined as the polar opposite to Legalism the lawless or un dogmad approach. He also stated that Situationism was a midway between the two other positions and that the Situationalist is lively to set aside rules if love seems better served by doing so. According to Fletcher, The situationist follows a moral law or violates it according to the need. Fletcher also rejects Legalism because it cannot make up exceptions to the rule.In addition to this, he also rejects Antinomianism for the reason that it provides no foundation with which to guess ones morality and offers no justification as to why people should live in any other way than they want to. Fletcher proposed a key principle with which to guide moral decision-m aking rather than rules. This starthand principle is that of acting in the most loving way. A readjustment 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 altruistic love or agape.Jesus declared 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 determined and acted upon. They are Pragmatism, Relativism, Positivism and Personalism. The first presupposition is Pragmatism which demands that a proposed course of put to death should work and that its success or failure should be judged according to the principle.This is practical and works because Legalism and Antinomianism do not. The second presup position is Relativism which rejects such absolutes such as never, always, perfect and complete. The principle of love is applied relative to each situation so that an appropriate solvent is made. Situationism is not the same as Antinomianism because the ultimate measuring is agapeic love. Love is the constant in all situations, unlike 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 loving way is a choice we make beforehand based on the notion that other 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 stage first. Fletcher emphasised the fact that ethics deals with human relations and should therefor e adorn people at the centre.Fletcher also believed that Legalism fails to appreciate 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 works 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 round agape. Love 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. Th e 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 times.Jesus summarised the entire Jewish law by verbal expression love God and love your neighbour. In the third working principle, Fletcher stated how love and justness are the same. This idea was unique to Fletcher, who claimed that justice is the giving 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 is not proclivity and that love is discerning and critical, not sentimental.As agape was not an emotion, it did not need to include liking. The fifth working principle includes the statement that love justifies the means. Situation Ethics is a teleological theory that iden tifies 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 near the most loving action. Lastly, the sixth working principle of, love decides 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 cultivate 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 start out or a doctor with the formulae for a cure for a sea wolf disease in his head alone. Fletcher also drew on situations that he had experienced firsthand, but most of all he would act situationally to swear out people.