casuistry

casuistry
(Lat., casus, a case) The approach to ethical problems in which the circumstances of cases affect the application of general rules; a casuist is one who distinguishes and marshals the relevance of different cases and rules. The Resolutiones morales (1659) of the Spanish ‘prince of casuists’ Antonio Diana (1585–1683) discusses some 20,000 cases. The term is often used pejoratively, implying the multiplication of doubtful distinctions, and their use to defend apparently self-serving and conflicting moral verdicts. Casuistry as a discipline declined in the 17th century with the rise of Protestant and pietistic approaches to religion and morality. However, ‘ situation ethics ’ provides the ground for the re-emergence of attention to the special circumstances of any object of a moral verdict.

Philosophy dictionary. . 2011.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Casuistry — (pronEng|ˈkæʒuːɨstri) is an applied ethics term referring to case based reasoning. Casuistry is used in juridical and ethical discussions of law and ethics, and often is a critique of principle based reasoning. [… …   Wikipedia

  • Casuistry — • The application of general principles of morality to definite and concrete cases of human activity, for the purpose, primarily, of determining what one ought to do, or ought not to do, or what one may do or leave undone as one pleases; and for… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Casuistry — Cas u*ist*ry, a. 1. The science or doctrine of dealing with cases of conscience, of resolving questions of right or wrong in conduct, or determining the lawfulness or unlawfulness of what a man may do by rules and principles drawn from the… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • casuistry — I noun behaviorism, deontology, empiricism, ethical philosophy, ethology, idealism, moral science, perfectionism, sophistry, utilitarianism II index duplicity, ethics, sophistry Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton …   Law dictionary

  • casuistry — sophistry, sophism, *fallacy …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • casuistry — [n] overgeneral reasoning chicanery, deception, deceptiveness, delusion, equivocation, evasion, fallacy, lie, oversubtleness, sophism, sophistry, speciousness, spuriousness, trick; concepts 54,63 …   New thesaurus

  • casuistry — ► NOUN ▪ the use of clever but false reasoning, especially in relation to moral issues. DERIVATIVES casuist noun casuistic adjective casuistical adjective. ORIGIN from Spanish casuista, from Latin casus fall, chance, occurrence …   English terms dictionary

  • casuistry — [kazh′o͞o is trē] n. pl. casuistries [ CASUIST + RY] 1. the application of general principles of ethics to specific problems of right and wrong in conduct, in order to solve or clarify them 2. subtle but misleading or false reasoning; sophistry,… …   English World dictionary

  • casuistry — noun [kəˈsuɪstri/|[ˈkæʒuːɨstri/ a) The process of answering practical questions via interpretation of rules or cases that illustrate such rules, especially in ethics. And yet it would seem that the whole analysis he had made, his attempt to find… …   Wiktionary

  • casuistry — [[t]kæ̱zjuɪstri, AM kæ̱ʒu [/t]] N UNCOUNT (disapproval) Casuistry is the use of clever arguments to persuade or trick people. [FORMAL] …   English dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”