2c. Content of Religion and ethics (H573/02) - 1. Normative Ethical Theories: Religious Approaches - Situation Ethics* — OCR A-Level Religious Studies
2c. Content of Religion and ethics (H573/02) - 1. Normative Ethical Theories: Religious Approaches - Situation Ethics* explained
2c. Content of Religion and ethics (H573/02) - 1.
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Normative Ethical Theories: Religious Approaches - Situation Ethics* covers 9 specification points, including Agape; the six propositions; the four working… and Origins of agape in the New Testament and its…. Open a point below for its explanation and revision guidance.
Your focus
- Fletcher’s situation ethics, including: agape; the six propositions; the four working principles; conscience
- origins of agape in the New Testament and its religious development in the writing of Fletcher
- what they are and how they give rise to the theory of situation ethics and its approach to moral decision-making: 1. Love is the only thing that is intrinsically good; 2. Love is the ruling norm in ethical decision-making and replaces all laws; 3. Love and justice are the same thing–justice is love that is distributed; 4. Love wills the neighbour’s good regardless of whether the neighbour is liked or not; 5. Love is the goal or end of the act and that justifies any means to achieve that goal; 6. Love decides on each situation as it arises without a set of laws to guide it
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- what they are and how they are intended to be applied: 1. pragmatism: it is based on experience rather than on theory; 2. relativism: it is based on making the absolute laws of Christian ethics relative; 3. positivism: it begins with belief in the reality and importance of love; 4. personalism: persons, not laws or anything else, are at the centre of situation ethics
- what conscience is and what it is not according to Fletcher, i.e. a verb not a noun; a term that describes attempts to make decisions creatively
- whether or not situation ethics provides a helpful method of moral decision-making
- whether or not an ethical judgement about something being good, bad, right or wrong can be based on the extent to which, in any given situation, agape is best served
- whether Fletcher’s understanding of agape is really religious or whether it means nothing more than wanting the best for the person involved in a given situation
- whether or not the rejection of absolute rules by situation ethics makes moral decision-making entirely individualistic and subjective