Situation Ethics: Fletcher's agape principle, the four working principles, the six fundamental principles, the rejection of legalism and antinomianism, and strengths and weaknesses of the theory.

What this dot point is asking

You need to explain Situation Ethics as set out by Joseph Fletcher in 1966, including the central place of agape (selfless Christian love), the four working principles, the six fundamental principles, and the positioning of the theory as a middle way between legalism and antinomianism, and then evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. This is the second of the three normative theories in AS 7, and it contrasts sharply with the absolutism of Natural Moral Law.

Agape: the one absolute

Fletcher's theory is relativist because all rules are relative to love, and teleological because the right action is the one that produces the most loving outcome in the circumstances. Crucially, agape is not warm feeling but a disposition of the will to seek the neighbour's good, so it can be demanding and self-sacrificial.

The middle way: rejecting legalism and antinomianism

The four working principles

These describe the method by which a situationist reaches a decision.

• Pragmatism. The proposed course of action must actually work in practice to serve love; it must be practical, not merely ideal.
• Relativism. There are no absolute rules except love; words such as "never" and "always" are relativised to the loving end.
• Positivism. The theory begins by freely positing, as an act of faith, that love is the highest value; it is not proved by reason alone.
• Personalism. People are put at the centre. Ethics serves persons; the question is what is best for the people involved, not conformity to law.

The six fundamental principles

Fletcher's six propositions express the content of the theory.

1. Only one thing is intrinsically good, namely love; nothing else.
2. The ruling norm of Christian decision is love; it replaces the law.
3. Love and justice are the same, for justice is love distributed.
4. Love wills the neighbour's good whether we like the neighbour or not.
5. Only the end justifies the means; nothing else.
6. Love's decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively.

Conscience and the situational method

For Fletcher, conscience is not a faculty or an inner voice but a verb: it is the activity of making loving decisions in the moment. This is why two people, both acting out of agape, might reach different conclusions in the same case. A famous illustration Fletcher uses is "sacrificial adultery", where a woman judges that an act otherwise forbidden is, exceptionally, the most loving course; whatever one makes of the example, it shows that for Fletcher no act is intrinsically right or wrong apart from the loving end it serves.

Strengths and weaknesses

A model evaluation paragraph might run: "Situation Ethics has clear strengths: it is flexible enough to handle the complexity of real cases, it is compassionate because it puts persons before rules, and it can claim a strong scriptural basis in Jesus's command to love God and neighbour and his willingness to break the Sabbath for human need. Its weaknesses, however, are serious. Because it is teleological, it depends on predicting consequences, which is uncertain; because agape is hard to define and measure, decisions become subjective and hard to share; and the principle that the end justifies the means risks licensing acts most people regard as plainly wrong, provided they are dressed up as loving. The judgement, therefore, is that Situation Ethics is admirably humane and faithful to the spirit of Jesus's teaching, but its reliance on a vague absolute and uncertain outcomes makes it a difficult theory to apply consistently."

Try this

Q1. What does Fletcher mean by agape? [2 marks]

• Cue. Selfless, unconditional, self-giving love that wills the neighbour's good, the only intrinsic good.

Q2. Explain the four working principles of Situation Ethics. [6 marks]

• Cue. Pragmatism (it must work), relativism (rules relative to love), positivism (love posited by faith) and personalism (people before rules).

Q3. "Situation Ethics is the most Christian of ethical theories." Discuss. [12 marks]

• Cue. Weigh its basis in Jesus's command to love and his flexibility about the law against the charge that it abandons the moral rules central to Christian tradition. Reach a judgement.