Joseph Fletcher takes the whole rule-book away and leaves exactly one line on it: do the most loving thing. One unit, one move — worked out three times.
Is one rule enough — or does taking the others away leave nothing at all to hold on to?
Every argument in this unit lines up on the same axis — from rules decide everything to nothing decides in advance. Fletcher plants himself in the middle. Pick a sub-topic, then tap a position to see what it claims and where it is strong or weak.
Tap a circle — or use Tab and Enter — to explore each position.
Top answers do not treat the three sub-topics as three separate lists. The same three ideas run through all of them — spot the thread and you are writing at the top of the mark scheme.
Situationism is defined by what it stands between — legalism, where the rules decide, and antinomianism, where nothing does.
Agape is willed rather than felt, so it can be calculated. That is the theory’s power — and the thing critics find scandalous.
Flexibility buys relevance and pays in consensus; autonomy buys freedom and pays in authority. Pair them, never list them.
The spine of the unitFletcher removes every moral rule but one. Everything else in this unit is a consequence of that single move.
Each sub-topic ends in the same shape of argument: both sides agree on the facts and split on what settles the question. Learn one case per sub-topic and you can argue all three.
The legalist reading — the rule settles it
The situationist reading — the person settles it
The legalist verdict — the first woman was right
The situationist verdict — the second woman was right
It is the fatal flaw
It is the whole point
Everything for the unit, in one place. Open a sub-topic’s lesson, booklet and podcast, and use the Philosopher Companion across all three.
LINKS list near the bottom, and paste each SharePoint share link once. Buttons with no link show as “Link not set”.
Use your resources in this order. The Philosopher Companion is where you learn to plan both question types — never evaluate what you have not first explained.
One podcast per sub-topic — a teacher and a student talk each position through to a judgement. Annotate as you listen.
Put Fletcher’s claims into your own words, then decide the strength and the weakness you would give each position.
Match each key term to its meaning, then use it in a sentence. Quote the six propositions by number and by content — the cheapest AO1 marks in the unit.
The axe-murderer, the Wilderness Road, Bonhoeffer, the burning plane. One case, argued both ways, is worth a page of general comment.
Use the Companion frameworks and the comparison grid. Pair every strength with the cost it carries — that pairing is what a top level looks like.
A full review of Situation Ethics — the middle way, the six propositions, and the evaluation. Best watched before you start revising, then again to check your recall.
Teacher: paste the YouTube link in the VIDEO_URL line near the bottom of this file. The player then appears here automatically.
Flip a card to check yourself. Switch between key terms (term → meaning) and positions (position → claim, strength & weakness), and filter by sub-topic.