Situation ethics

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The situation ethics , also situational ethics, is an approach within Christian ethics which tries not to justify moral behavior by the highest norms and values , but solely based on the life situations and circumstances ( environment ) of the individual. The basic idea is that the uniqueness and unrepeatability of both the individual and the specific situation in which he or she has to make his or her decision to act makes it impossible to establish and justify general principles and norms.

Conceptualization

The term situation ethics was coined in 1938 by Theodor Steinbüchel , who referred to Eberhard Grisebach's Critical Ethics (1928).

“Just as situation ethics itself cannot do without an essential human self, which as the human being is the same despite and in all individual development and within all unequal situations, just as little can a concrete decision be made without the reality of this living self. After all, it is the concrete human being as self, who should open himself to you in the situation, and it is his concrete real possibility of being that should prove itself in every situation. "

- Theodor Steinbüchel : The philosophical foundation of the Catholic moral doctrine

Situation ethical approaches

Important representatives of situation ethics are Joseph Fletcher and John Arthur Thomas Robinson (although for Robinson it is primarily about the image of God and only consequently about ethics). The term "situation" can be understood in different ways:

  1. Social and political context of behavior. Using ethical arguments then means taking into account the real conditions.
  2. Contingency of God's action. Man should correspond to God's actions in his actions, respond to them. In this sense, Karl Barth is a situation ethicist, similarly to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Paul L. Lehmann .
  3. Experience of human responsibility. Here Martin Buber's I-You philosophy is in the background. Personal behaviors such as trust or love apply to a specific person with his or her individuality and needs. This aspect was emphasized by authors close to Rudolf Bultmann and Knud E. Løgstrup .

criticism

The situation ethics is sometimes referred to as individual ethics . The ethical principle provides for what the individual thinks to be good and what corresponds to his own interests. Every responsible actor creates the appropriate norm for every action.

Critics acknowledge that situational ethics take seriously the circumstances in which the individual finds themselves and are realistic. However, this ethics model often constitutes an excessive demand is the individual. It does not take into account the positive functions of standards. The ethics of the situation is also called into question with the argument that, without general principles, a situation-bound individual decision cannot be made sensibly.

The Catholic Magisterium took on since Pius XII's speeches . In 1952 a negative attitude towards the "new morality" was concerned, it was about the danger of laxism in marital and sexual morality. The term “new morality”, by which a situational and existential ethic is meant, was first used by the Congregatio sancti officii on February 2, 1956. The Roman Catholic Church rejected situation ethics in 1983 ( Veritatis Splendor ).

Christofer Frey sees a deficit of the situation-ethical approach in the fact that every situation is "perspective". The knowing person structures them himself through implicit norms and values ​​(in the sense of socially acquired preferences).

Dieter Birnbacher calls situation ethics an "extreme form of casuistry ," which rejects any comparability of cases of ethical action: "According to this, every moral judgment can only be based on individual intuition, and every concrete case requires a singular, tailored assessment."

literature

  • Peter Reifenberg: Situation Ethics . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 9 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, Sp. 641-643 .
  • Knud E. Løgstrup: The ethical demand (Original: Den etiske fordring ). Laupp, Tübingen 1959. ( Review )
  • Joseph Fletcher: Morality Without Norms? (Original: Situation ethics - the new moral ). Mohn, Gütersloh 1967.
  • John AT Robinson: God is different (Original: Honest to God ). Kaiser, Munich 1964.
  • Christofer Frey: Critical considerations on so-called situation ethics (with regard to the problem of prenatal diagnostics) . In: Zeitschrift für Evangelische Ethik 29 (1985), pp. 50–64.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johannes Fischer, Stefan Gruden, Esther Imhof: Basic Ethics Course: Basic Concepts of Philosophical and Theological Ethics . Kohlhammer, 2nd revised and expanded edition Stuttgart 2007, p. 47ff.
  2. ^ Peter Reifenberg: Situation Ethics . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 9 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, Sp. 642 .
  3. ^ Theodor Steinbüchel: The philosophical foundation of the Catholic moral doctrine , Volume 1, Schwann, Düsseldorf 1938, p. 251
  4. ↑ Martin Honecker: Introduction to theological ethics. Basics and basic concepts . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1990, p. 11f.
  5. ↑ Martin Honecker: Introduction to theological ethics. Basics and basic concepts . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1990, p. 7.
  6. ↑ Stephan Ernst : Principle - Situation - Conscience: A look at the Catholic view . In: Thomas Laubach (Ed.): Ecumenical Ethics . Schwabe Verlag, Basel / Echter Verlag, Würzburg 2013, p. 57ff., Here p. 67.
  7. ↑ Dieter Birnbacher: Analytical introduction to ethics . Walter de Gruyter, 3rd revised edition Berlin / Boston 2013, p. 107.

See also