REVISION: "RELIGION AND ETHICS"

Revision notes for A-level Religious Studies (OCR)

Seven pages

RELIGION + ETHICS

Normative Ethical Theories

NATURAL LAW

Roman Catholic approach
Intrinsic values
Bentham
“Nonsense on stilts”
Cicero
“One eternal law"
ARISTOTLE
‘Eudaimonia’
Afterlife

THOMAS AQUINAS
‘Beatific vision’
Human purpose
Four Tiers of Law:
Eternal Law
Divine Law
Natural Law
HUMAN LAW
Precepts
‘Rule of synderesis’
Five primary precepts
‘Lex’ & ‘ius’
Real good
Apparent good
‘Principle of double effect’
Four conditions required in principle
Strengths & weaknesses
Just War theory
Seven virtues
Deontological secondary precepts

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
Objective
Relativism
Rational
Conflicting rules

JOHN FINNIS
Seven basic goods

UTILITARIANISM

JEREMY BENTHAM
Hedonism
“Two sovereign masters”
Pleasure is sole good, pain sole evil
Principle of utility
Hedonic calculus
Fecundity
Purity
Act utilitarianism
Strengths & weaknesses

JOHN STUART MILL
Higher and lower pleasures
Rule utilitarianism

PETER SINGER
Preference utilitarianism

SITUATION ETHICS

WILLIAM TEMPLE
Four types on love in the Bible
EROS
STORGE
PHILIA =
AGAPE
Jesus at Last Supper
More loving outcome
Jesus’ actions

JOSEPH FLETCHER
Bioethics
God’s rules should not always be followed
'Law of love’
‘Himself Might his Quietus Make’
‘Special Bombing Mission No. 13’
‘Christian Cloak and Dagger’
Loving neighbour = loving God
Ten Commandments
Greatest Commandment

RUDOLF BULTMANN
'Love thy neighbour’
Three ways of making moral decisions:
Legalistic ethics
Antinomian ethics
Situation ethics
Six Fundamental Principles
Ruling norm of Christian decision
Only the end justifies the means
Four Working Principles
Pragmatism
Relativism
Positivism
Personalism

Conscience as a verb

RELIGIOUS vs NON-RELIGIOUS
AB William Temple
Pius XII condemned SE as sacrilegious
Jesus’ agape inspired SE

STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
Subjectivity
Too individualistic
Consistent with the gospel
Disregards divine command theory
Universal appeal
Religious vs secular
Altruism
Truly selfless acts
“Situationism is a method”
Reality