Casuistry

Casuistry
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 Scriptures, from the laws of society or the church, or from equity and natural reason; the application of general moral rules to particular cases. [1913 Webster]

The consideration of these nice and puzzling question in the science of ethics has given rise, in modern times, to a particular department of it, distinguished by the title of casuistry. --Stewart. [1913 Webster]

Casuistry in the science of cases (i.e., oblique deflections from the general rule). --De Quincey. [1913 Webster]

2. Sophistical, equivocal, or false reasoning or teaching in regard to duties, obligations, and morals. [1913 Webster] ||


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.

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  • 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 — 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 — (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… …   Philosophy dictionary

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

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