Fletcher, Joseph

(b. 1905)

   Philosopher.

   Fletcher was a pastor before he was appointed to the Chair of Social Ethics at the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Subsequently he taught at the University of Virginia. In his influential Situation Ethics, published in 1966, he argued that the right ethical choice is the one informed by love in a particular situation: ‘The situationist enters into every decision-making situation fully armed with the ethical maxims of his community. . . . Just the same, he is prepared in any situation to compromise them or to set them aside in the situation if love seems better served by doing so’. Although his position has been much criticised, little has since been written on Christian ethics which has so gripped the public imagination.

   Joseph Fletcher, Moral Responsibility: Situation Ethics at Work (1967);

   R. Gill, A Textbook of Christian Ethics (1985);

   P. Ramsey, Deeds and Rules in Christian Ethics (1967).