Situation Ethics Essay

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Situation ethics is a teleological, relative ethical theory which is based on love. The theory uses motive and states that any rules can be bended if love is best served. Situation ethics is most commonly assioated with philosopher such as Jopseph Fletcher USA and JAT Robinson UK who developed it in the 1960s. In the 20th century the USA & UK were facing some drastic changes which involved women occupying a place in the workforce, secularisation, Vietnam war, civil rights movement and hippy culture. People were moving away from the church (legalism) and more towards antonmianism. Society was doing more of what was ethically right and putting rules to a side. Fletcher quoted a St Louis cab driver who said "sometimes you gotta put principles to one side and do what is right" this shows that it was a running trend on breaking the rules in order to get the best outcome of a situation. Fletcher also has 3 approaches to his theory which are as follows; legalism which means you have to abide by the rules, antonmianism which means that you do what you please and situational which means you can bend the rules if love is best served. Another feature of SE is based on agape which is a Greek term which means 'selfless love'. Fletcher stated that the rule of his theory was that agape love is essential and should be applied to every situation. He used the example of Jesus' quote in the New Testament which was "love thy neighbour" expressing that everyone should consider agape love before making decisions. Fletcher said that any laws can be bended for this law. Fletcher uses the term 'best interests' which relates into doing whatever will have the best outcome in any situation, the term also links in with Singers Utilitriansim which is preference Util. Both philisophers are looking for the best interests of everybody and not harming anyone. Another attribute of SE

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