A comparison of the philosophical traditions of Neo-Casuistry and situation ethics in the context of morality issues arising in the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’

Abstract

The purpose of this research is through extensive examination to compare and contrast two very different ethical decision-making frameworks, both forged in the Christian tradition. An examination will be undertaken of Neo-Casuistry and Christian Situationism and their respective abilities to provide their practitioners with the tools for moral decision-making, moral resolution and ultimately moral truth that will serve to positively address moral dilemma and/or moral conflict resulting from the use of Fourth Order Technologies (4OT) in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Neo-Casuistry falls within the Catholic tradition and Christian Situationism falls within the Protestant tradition and the abilities of both religious, ethical decision-making frameworks to provide moral truth in 4IR will be examined, assessed and compared within the contemporary context of ‘privacy’ and the ‘personal’. The results of this research will support that an ethical decision-making framework that judiciously makes use of the ‘best practices’ from each of the traditions would appear to provide 4IR with the most suitable and practical means of finding moral truth in situations of moral dilemma and/or moral conflict.