Situation Ethics
Situation Ethics
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Situation Ethics

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Situation Ethics is the transcript of a stimulating debate between situation ethicist Joseph Fletcher and Christian apologist John Warwick Montgomery at San Diego State University in 1971. The discussion seeks to answer the question of the value and of the necessity of a normative moral principle.

Joseph Fletcher says: “Whether we ought to follow a moral principle or not would always depend upon the situation. … In some situations unmarried love could be infinitely more moral than married unlove. Lying could be more Christian than telling the truth…stealing could be better than respective private property … no action is good or right of itself. It depends on whether it hurts or helps people. … There are no normative moral principles whatsoever which are intrinsically valid or universally obliging. We may not absolutize the norms of human conduct. … Love is the highest good and the first-order value, the primary consideration to which in every act … we should be prepared to sidetrack or subordinate other value considerations of right and wrong.”

Montgomery feels that the ends don’t justify the means. Who has the better argument?