Situation ethics

• Situation ethics was founded by Joseph Fletcher as a direct rebellion against the deontological ethics of Christianity 
• situation ethics was still designed to be a Christian ethic, just without all the deontological rules 

legalism 

• Legalism is the belief that all humans actions should be governed by rules, fletcher believes this has made Christianity too legalistic as it stops people thinking for themsleves and there are times when legalistic rules are inappropriate 

antinomianism 

• This is an approach to ethics with no rules at all, fletcher rejects this because moral agents need some sort of ethical guidance 

conscience 

• The conscious is seen as a god given intuitive ethical guide, fletcher rejects this because the conscious is a verb so it is just a brains mechanical process 

The middle ground 

• fletcher stated that situation ethics should instead be based on the middle ground between legalism and antinomianism because it avoids the problems associated with legalisma and antinomianism

agape 

• Fletcher argued that there should be one simple guideline principle which is love/agape
• love is directed outwards, it is unconditional ad it is given constantly 

Relativist 

• the belief that no action is right or wrong in itself and there are no universal norms "there are no rules - none at all"

teleological 

• The right and wrong of an action should be judges by the end outcome of the action 

consequential 

• the morality of a action should be based on the consequence outcomes of our actions 

• Morally good action = the consequences outcome of our actions creates selfless love 
• morally bad action = the consequences outcome of our actions creates selfishness 

for example, stealing a loaf of bread (bad action) is morally justified is it creates agape consequences e.g. giving the bread to a starving family