Situation Ethics

Situation ethics is a position that holds that moral decision making is contextual or situational. It understands moral rules not as directives but as guidelines that are applicable in most situations but not all and that themselves may change or be modified over time because of their usefulness or lack thereof in varied situations. Ethical judgments must be made within the context of the entirety of the situation, and all normative features of a situation must be viewed as a whole. The guiding framework for moral decision making is stated variously as that of acting in the most loving way or acting to maximize harmony and reduce discord or to enrich human existence.

Situation ethics was developed by an Anglican theologian, Joseph Fletcher, in the mid-1960s as a result of his objections to both fixed, universal moral laws and the view that there are no fixed moral principles at all. The situation ethics of Fletcher was based on the general norm of brotherly love, which is evidenced in different ways in different situations, and he applied this to issues of Church doctrine.

For example, if one holds to the absolute wrongness of abortion, then one will never allow for abortion, no matter what the circumstances within which the pregnancy occurs. Fletcher holds that such an absolute position pays no attention to the complexity and uniqueness of each situation and can result in a callous and inhumane way of dealing with the problem. On the other hand, if there are no principles at all, then the decision is reduced to nothing more than what one decides to do in the moment, with no real moral implications involved. Rather, Fletcher holds, within the context of the complexities of the situation, one should come to the most loving or right decision as to what to do.

This view was influential in Christian communities both in America and Europe for a good number of years, but reached its peak in the 1980s and then began to wane. But while Fletcher is no longer influential, situation ethics is asserting a strong voice within the context of contemporary ethics through the position of American pragmatist philosophy, most notably through its employment of the position of John Dewey. Dewey developed situation ethics in a nonreligious context and as part of a broadly based philosophy, and it is Dewey's position that is most often used in presenting or employing situation ethics in its contemporary form.

Dewey characterizes his position as “instrumentalism” because moral principles are understood as tools or instruments that are used because they work in resolving the conflicts within complex situations in the most harmonious way for all those involved. These principles are experimental hypotheses that are constantly subject to ongoing verification or revision by the demands of the unique conditions of experience.

This view is opposed to the absolutist understanding of fixed rules as inherently valid and universally applicable to all situations, there being no exceptions. It also is opposed to the relativist understanding that there are no normative guidelines but only individual judgments concerning particular cases and that there is no moral justification for evaluating one moral claim as “really” superior to another, with ethical judgments in particular cases coming down to a “my opinion versus your opinion” kind of decision.

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