Joseph Fletcher

Joseph Fletcher (1905–1991) grew up surrounded by the injustices experienced by poor coal workers in West Virginia. His long, active life included: working in coal mines, receiving a degree in theology from Berkeley Divinity School, studying economics at Yale, serving as a union organizer, teaching ethics and theology at various universities, and pioneering the field of medical ethics. When in college, Fletcher embraced Christianity as a way to improve society. Later in his life he rejected Christianity. The single thread running through his multifaceted life was his activism against injustice. Fletcher was most well-known for his approach to ethics, known as situation ethics. In this viewpoint he compares his ethical thoughts to legalism (fixed moral rules) and antinomianism (the denial of all moral rules), two approaches to ethics with which he strongly disagrees.

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