ABSTRACT

This study A Philosophical Examination on Joseph Fletchers Notion of Morality examined Joseph Fletchers notion of morality. Morality is the moral beliefs, views, and attitudes of given individuals, societies, and groups. Joseph Francis Fletcher was a philosopher widely recognized for his work in moral theory and applied ethics. Fletcher says there are two unattractive views in ethics: Legalism and Antinomianism, and one attractive view which sit in between them: Situationism. The major objective of this work was to philosophically examine the works of Joseph Fletcher on the notion of morality. Other objectives include to carryout and also to expose his philosophy on morality. The research method adopted in this research include, the expository, analytic and critical methods. The study found out that human actions are either morally right or wrong. However, to evaluate and examine the rightness and wrongness of human action have been the major concern of ethics. Thus, to examine human actions, there are no universally acceptable moral rules or codes that are agreed among the ethicists. This is because, there are many ethical theories which have been postulated overtime in the history of ethics. Hence, to determine whether an action is morally right or wrong, this is done in relation to certain ethical theories like egoism, altruism, utilitarianism, divine command theory, among others. The study concluded that Fletchers position on morality position is worth studying though (not just because it is on the curriculum) because it opens up the conceptual possibility that a committed Christian/Jew/Muslim etc. may consider the answers to moral questions to depend on the diverse situations we find ourselves in.

Keywords: Morality, Ethics, Fletcher, Situationism.