Philosophy:Casuistry

Short description: Reasoning by extrapolation

Le grand docteur sophiste, 1886 illustration of Gargantua by Albert Robida, expressing mockery of his casuist education.

In ethics, casuistry (/ˈkæzjuɪstri/ KAZ-ew-iss-tree) is a process of reasoning that seeks to resolve moral problems by extracting or extending abstract rules from a particular case, and reapplying those rules to new instances. This method occurs in applied ethics and jurisprudence. The term is also used pejoratively to criticise the use of clever but unsound reasoning, especially in relation to moral questions (as in sophistry). It has been defined as follows:

Study of cases of conscience and a method of solving conflicts of obligations by applying general principles of ethics, religion, and moral theology to particular and concrete cases of human conduct. This frequently demands an extensive knowledge of natural law and equity, civil law, ecclesiastical precepts, and an exceptional skill in interpreting these various norms of conduct....

It remains a common method in applied ethics.

Etymology

According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the term and its agent noun "casuist", appearing from about 1600, derive from the Latin noun casus, meaning "case", especially as referring to a "case of conscience". The same source says, "Even in the earliest printed uses the sense was pejorative".

History

Casuistry dates from Aristotle (384–322 BC), yet the peak of casuistry was from 1550 to 1650, when the Society of Jesus used case-based reasoning, particularly in administering the Sacrament of Penance (or "confession"). The term became pejorative following Blaise Pascal's attack on the misuse of the method in his Provincial Letters (1656–57). The French mathematician, religious philosopher and Jansenist sympathiser attacked priests who used casuistic reasoning in confession to pacify wealthy church donors. Pascal charged that "remorseful" aristocrats could confess a sin one day, re-commit it the next, then generously donate to the church and return to re-confess their sin, confident that they were being assigned a penance in name only. These criticisms darkened casuistry's reputation in the following centuries. For example, the Oxford English Dictionary quotes a 1738 essay by Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke to the effect that casuistry "destroys, by distinctions and exceptions, all morality, and effaces the essential difference between right and wrong, good and evil"

The 20th century saw a revival of interest in casuistry. In their book The Abuse of Casuistry: A History of Moral Reasoning (1988), Albert Jonsen and Stephen Toulmin argue that it is not casuistry but its abuse that has been a problem; that, properly used, casuistry is powerful reasoning. Jonsen and Toulmin offer casuistry as a method for compromising the contradictory principles of moral absolutism and moral relativism. In addition, the ethical philosophies of utilitarianism (especially preference utilitarianism) and pragmatism have been identified as employing casuistic reasoning.

Early modernity

The casuistic method was popular among Catholic thinkers in the early modern period. Casuistic authors include Antonio Escobar y Mendoza, whose Summula casuum conscientiae (1627) enjoyed great success, Thomas Sanchez, Vincenzo Filliucci (Jesuit and penitentiary at St Peter's), Antonino Diana, Paul Laymann (Theologia Moralis, 1625), John Azor (Institutiones Morales, 1600), Etienne Bauny, Louis Cellot, Valerius Reginaldus, and Hermann Busembaum (d. 1668).

The progress of casuistry was interrupted toward the middle of the 17th century by the controversy which arose concerning the doctrine of probabilism, which effectively stated that one could choose to follow a "probable opinion", that is, supported by a theologian or another, even if it contradicted a more probable opinion or a quotation from one of the Fathers of the Church.

<section begin=Alleged corruption in the Catholic Church transclusion/>Certain kinds of casuistry were criticised by early Protestant theologians, because it was used to justify many of the abuses that they sought to reform. It was famously attacked by the Catholic and Jansenist philosopher Blaise Pascal, during the formulary controversy against the Jesuits, in his Provincial Letters as the use of rhetorics to justify moral laxity, which became identified by the public with Jesuitism; hence the everyday use of the term to mean complex and sophistic reasoning to justify moral laxity. By the mid-18th century, "casuistry" had become a synonym for attractive-sounding, but ultimately false, moral reasoning.<section end=Alleged corruption in the Catholic Church transclusion/>

In 1679 Pope Innocent XI publicly condemned sixty-five of the more radical propositions (stricti mentalis), taken chiefly from the writings of Escobar, Suarez and other casuists as propositiones laxorum moralistarum and forbade anyone to teach them under penalty of excommunication. Despite this condemnation by a pope, both Catholicism and Protestantism permit the use of ambiguous statements in specific circumstances.

Later modernity

G. E. Moore dealt with casuistry in chapter 1.4 of his Principia Ethica, in which he claims that "the defects of casuistry are not defects of principle; no objection can be taken to its aim and object. It has failed only because it is far too difficult a subject to be treated adequately in our present state of knowledge". Furthermore, he asserted that "casuistry is the goal of ethical investigation. It cannot be safely attempted at the beginning of our studies, but only at the end".

Since the 1960s, applied ethics has revived the ideas of casuistry in applying moral reasoning to particular cases in law, bioethics, and business ethics, so casuistry's reputation is somewhat better now.

Pope Francis, a Jesuit, has criticized casuistry as "the practice of setting general laws on the basis of exceptional cases" in instances where a more holistic approach would be preferred.

See also

• Philosophy:Applied ethics – Practical application of moral considerations
• Case-based reasoning – Process of solving new problems based on the solutions of similar past problems
• Philosophy:Consequentialism – Ethical theory based on consequences
• Physics:First principle – Basic proposition or assumption
• Qiyas – Deductive analogy or reasoning by measuring the new situation with the given situation
• Philosophy:Rhetoric – Art of persuasion
• Rhetorical reason – Faculty of discovering the crux of the matter
• Philosophy:School of Salamanca – Cultural movement
• Philosophy:Situational ethics – Takes into account the particular context of an act when evaluating it ethically
• Religion:Talmudical hermeneutics – Methods for investigation & determination of meanings of Jewish biblical scriptures

Further reading

• Arras, J. D. (1991). "Getting Down to Cases: The Revival of Casuistry in Bioethics". Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 16 (1): 29–51. doi:10.1093/jmp/16.1.29. PMID 2010719. 
• Biggar, Nigel (1989). "A Case for Casuistry in the Church". Modern Theology 6: 29–51. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0025.1989.tb00206.x. 
• Blake, David C. (1992). "The Hospital Ethics Committee Health Care's Moral Conscience or White Elephant?". The Hastings Center Report 22 (1): 6–11. doi:10.2307/3562714. PMID 1544801. 
• Bliton, Mark J. (1993). The Ethics of Clinical Ethics Consultation: On the Way to Clinical Philosophy (Diss. Vanderbilt)
• Boeyink, David E. (1992). "Casuistry: A Case-Based Methods for Journalists". Journal of Mass Media Ethics 7 (2): 107–120. doi:10.1207/s15327728jmme0702_4. 
• Boyle, J. (1991). "Who is Entitled to Double Effect?". Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 16 (5): 475–494. doi:10.1093/jmp/16.5.475. PMID 1779208. 
• Brody, Baruch A. (1988). "Ethical Questions Raised by the Persistent Vegetative Patient". The Hastings Center Report 18 (1): 33–37. doi:10.2307/3562015. PMID 3350649. 
• Brody, Baruch A. (1989). "A Historical Introduction to Jewish Casuistry on Suicide and Euthanasia". Suicide and Euthanasia. Philosophy and Medicine. 35. pp. 39–75. doi:10.1007/978-94-015-7838-7_3. ISBN 978-90-481-4039-8. 
• Carlson, A. Cheree (1992). "Creative casuistry and feminist consciousness: The rhetoric of moral reform". Quarterly Journal of Speech 78: 16–32. doi:10.1080/00335639209383979. 
• Carney, Bridget Mary. (1993). Modern Casuistry: An Essential But Incomplete Method for Clinical Ethical Decision-Making. (Diss., Graduate Theological Union).
• Carson, Ronald A. (1990). "Interpretive bioethics: The way of discernment". Theoretical Medicine 11 (1): 51–59. doi:10.1007/BF00489238. PMID 2339334. 
• Carson, Ronald A. (1988). "Paul Ramsey, Principled Protestant Casuist: A Retrospective." Medical Humanities Review, Vol. 2, pp. 24–35.
• Chidwick, Paula Marjorie (1994). Approaches to Clinical Ethical Decision-Making: Ethical Theory, Casuistry and Consultation. (Diss., U of Guelph)
• Davis, Dena S. (1992). "Abortion in Jewish Thought: A Study in Casuistry". Journal of the American Academy of Religion (2): 313–324. doi:10.1093/jaarel/LX.2.313. 
• Degrazia, D. (1992). "Moving Forward in Bioethical Theory: Theories, Cases, and Specified Principlism". Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 17 (5): 511–539. doi:10.1093/jmp/17.5.511. PMID 1431667. 
• Downie, R. (1992). "Health care ethics and casuistry". Journal of Medical Ethics 18 (2): 61–66. doi:10.1136/jme.18.2.61. PMID 1619625. 
• Drane, J.F. (1990). "Methodologies for Clinical Ethics." Bulletin of the Pan American Health Organization, Vol. 24, pp. 394–404.
• Dworkin, R.B. (1994). "Emerging Paradigms in Bioethics: Symposium." Indiana Law Journal, Vol. 69, pp. 945–1122.
• Elliot, Carl (1992). "Solving the Doctor's Dilemma?" New Scientist, Vol. 133, pp. 42–43.
• Emanuel, Ezekiel J. (1991). The Ends of Human Life: Medical Ethics in a Liberal Polity (Cambridge).
• Franklin, James (2001). The Science of Conjecture: Evidence and Probability Before Pascal (Johns Hopkins), ch. 4.
• Gallagher, Lowell (1991). Medusa's Gaze: Casuistry and Conscience in the Renaissance (Stanford)
• Gaul, Alice Leveille (1995). "Casuistry, care, compassion, and ethics data analysis". Advances in Nursing Science 17 (3): 47–57. doi:10.1097/00012272-199503000-00006. PMID 7778890. 
• Green, Bryan S. (1988). Literary Methods and Sociological Theory: Case Studies of Simmel and Weber (Albany)
• Hoffmaster, Barry (1994). "The forms and limits of medical ethics". Social Science & Medicine 39 (9): 1155–1164. doi:10.1016/0277-9536(94)90348-4. PMID 7801153. 
• Houle, Martha Marie (1983). The Fictions of Casuistry and Pascal's Jesuit in "Les Provinciales" (Diss. U California, San Diego)
• Hunter, Michael (1993). "Casuistry in Action: Robert Boyle's Confessional Interviews with Gilbert Burnet and Edward Stillingfleet, 1691". The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 44: 80–98. doi:10.1017/S0022046900010216. 
• Hunter, K. M. (1989). "A Science of Individuals: Medicine and Casuistry". Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 14 (2): 193–212. doi:10.1093/jmp/14.2.193. PMID 2769113. 
• Jonsen, A. R. (1991). "American Moralism and the Origin of Bioethics in the United States". Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 16 (1): 113–130. doi:10.1093/jmp/16.1.113. PMID 2010718. 
• Jonsen, Albert R. (1986). "Casuistry and clinical ethics". Theoretical Medicine 7 (1): 65–74. doi:10.1007/BF00489424. PMID 3704959. 
• Jonsen, Albert R. (1986). "Casuistry" in J.F. Childress and J. Macgvarrie, eds. Westminster Dictionary of Christian Ethics (Philadelphia)
• Jonsen, Albert R. (1991). "Casuistry as methodology in clinical ethics". Theoretical Medicine 12 (4): 295–307. doi:10.1007/BF00489890. PMID 1801300. 
• Jonsen, Albert R. (1991). "Of Balloons and Bicycles; or, the Relationship between Ethical Theory and Practical Judgment". The Hastings Center Report 21 (5): 14–16. doi:10.2307/3562885. PMID 1743945. 
• Jonsen, Albert R. and Stephen Toulmin (1988). The Abuse of Casuistry: A History of Moral Reasoning (California).
• Keenan, James F., S.J. and Thomas A. Shannon. (1995). The Context of Casuistry (Washington).
• Kirk, K. (1936). Conscience and Its Problems, An Introduction to Casuistry (London)
• Klinefelter, Donald S. (1990). "How is Applied Philosophy to be Applied?". Journal of Social Philosophy 21: 16–26. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9833.1990.tb00263.x. 
• Kopelman, Loretta M. (1994). "Case method and casuistry: The problem of bias". Theoretical Medicine 15 (1): 21–37. doi:10.1007/BF00999217. PMID 8059430. 
• Kopelman, L. M. (1990). "What is Applied About "Applied" Philosophy?". Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 15 (2): 199–218. doi:10.1093/jmp/15.2.199. PMID 2351894. 
• Kuczewski, Mark G. (1994). "Casuistry and Its Communitarian Critics". Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 4 (2): 99–116. doi:10.1353/ken.0.0082. PMID 11645267. 
• Kuczewski, Mark G. (1994). Fragmentation and Consensus in Contemporary Neo-Aristotelian Ethics: A Study in Communitarianism and Casuistry (Diss., Duquesne U).
• Leites, Edmund (1988). Leites, Edmund. ed. Conscience and Casuistry in Early Modern Europe. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511521430. ISBN 9780521520201. 
• Leites, Edmund (1974). "Conscience, Casuistry, and Moral Decision: Some Historical Perspectives". Journal of Chinese Philosophy 2: 41–58. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6253.1974.tb00146.x. 
• Long, Edward LeRoy, junior (1954). Conscience and Compromise: an Approach to Protestant Casuistry (Philadelphia, Penn.: Westminster Press)
• MacIntyre, Alasdair C. (1990). "The Abuse of Casuistry: A History of Moral Reasoning (Review)". Journal of the History of Philosophy 28 (4): 634–635. doi:10.1353/hph.1990.0086. 
• MacIntyre, Alasdair (1984). "Does Applied Ethics Rest on a Mistake?". Monist 67 (4): 498–513. doi:10.5840/monist198467438. 
• Mackler, Aaron Leonard. Cases of Judgments in Ethical Reasoning: An Appraisal of Contemporary Casuistry and Holistic Model for the Mutual Support of Norms and Case Judgments (Diss., Georgetown U).
• Macpherson-Smith, Malcolm (1994). "Anchor and Course for the Modern Ship of Casuistry". Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 3 (3): 391–402. doi:10.1017/S0963180100005223. PMID 7994464. 
• Mahowald, Mary B. (1994). "Collaboration and Casuistry". Peirce and Value Theory. Semiotic Crossroads. 6. pp. 61. doi:10.1075/sc.6.09mah. ISBN 978-90-272-1947-3. 
• McCready, Amy R. (1992). "Milton's Casuistry: The Case of 'The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce.' " Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Vol. 22, pp. 393–428.
• Miller, R. B. (1989). "On Transplanting Human Fetal Tissue: Presumptive Duties and the Task of Casuistry". Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 14 (6): 617–640. doi:10.1093/jmp/14.6.617. PMID 2614282. 
• Murray, Thomas H. (1994). "Medical ethics, moral philosophy and moral tradition". Medicine and Moral Reasoning. pp. 91–105. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511627842.008. ISBN 9780521459464. 
• Murray, Thomas H. (1993). "Moral Reasoning in Social Context". Journal of Social Issues 49 (2): 185–200. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1993.tb00927.x. PMID 17167922. 
• Odozor, Paulinus Ikechukwu (1989). Richard A. McCormick and Casuistry: Moral Decision-Making in Conflict Situations (M.A. Thesis, St. Michael's College).
• Pack, Rolland W. (1988). Case Studies and Moral Conclusions: The Philosophical Use of Case Studies in Biomedical Ethics (Diss., Georgetown U).
• Pascal, Blaise (1967). The Provincial Letters (London).
• Peach, Lucinda Joy (1994). "Feminist cautions about casuistry: The Supreme Court's abortion decisions as paradigms". Policy Sciences 27 (2–3): 143–160. doi:10.1007/BF00999885. 
• Río Parra, Elena del (2008). Cartografías de la conciencia española en la Edad de Oro (Mexico).
• Rudy, Kathy (1994). "Thinking Through the Ethics of Abortion". Theology Today 51 (2): 235–248. doi:10.1177/004057369405100204. 
• Seiden, Melvin (1990). Measure for Measure: Casuistry and Artistry (Washington).
• Sichol, Marcia (1992). "Women and the New Casuistry". Thought 67 (2): 148–157. doi:10.5840/thought199267223. 
• Singer, Marcus G. (1980). "Is Ethics a Science? Ought It to Be?". Zygon 15: 29–42. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9744.1980.tb00374.x. 
• Smith, David H. (1991). "Stories, Values, and Patient Care Decisions." in Charles Conrad, ed. The Ethical Nexus: Values in Organizational Decision Making. (New Jersey).
• Sobel, Jordan Howard (1985). "Everyone's conforming to a rule". Philosophical Studies 48 (3): 375–387. doi:10.1007/BF01305396. 
• Keenan, James F. (1993). "Notes on Moral Theology: 1992". Theological Studies 54: 95–159. doi:10.1177/004056399305400105. 
• Starr, G. (1971). Defoe and Casuistry (Princeton).
• Strong, Carson (1988). "Justification in Ethics". Moral Theory and Moral Judgments in Medical Ethics. Philosophy and Medicine. 32. pp. 193–211. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-2715-5_14. ISBN 978-94-010-7723-1. 
• Tallmon, James Michael (2001). "Casuistry" in The Encyclopedia of Rhetoric. Ed. Thomas O. Sloane. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 83–88.
• Tallmon, James Michael (1993). Casuistry and the Quest for Rhetorical Reason: Conceptualizing a Method of Shared Moral Inquiry (Diss., U of Washington).
• Tallmon, J. M. (1994). "How Jonsen Really Views Casuistry: A Note on the Abuse of Father Wildes". Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 19 (1): 103–113. doi:10.1093/jmp/19.1.103. PMID 8201287. 
• Taylor, Richard (1984). Good and Evil – A New Direction: A Foreceful Attack on the Rationalist Tradition in Ethics (Buffalo).
• Thomasma, David C. (1994). "Clinical ethics as medical hermeneutics". Theoretical Medicine 15 (2): 93–111. doi:10.1007/BF00994019. PMID 7997974. 
• Tomlinson, Tom (1994). "Casuistry in medical ethics: Rehabilitated, or repeat offender?". Theoretical Medicine 15 (1): 5–20. doi:10.1007/BF00999216. PMID 8059432. 
• Toulmin, Stephen (1982). "How Medicine Saved the Life of Ethics". Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 25 (4): 736–750. doi:10.1353/pbm.1982.0064. PMID 11643854. 
• Toulmin, Stephen (1988). "The Recovery of Practical Philosophy." The American Scholar, Vol. 57, pp. 337–352.
• Toulmin, Stephen (1981). "The Tyranny of Principles". The Hastings Center Report 11 (6): 31–39. doi:10.2307/3560542. PMID 7037683. 
• Van Der Steen, Wim J.; Musschenga, Bert (1992). "The issue of generality in ethics". The Journal of Value Inquiry 26 (4): 511–524. doi:10.1007/BF00138918. 
• Walton, Douglas N. (1990). "Courage, relativism and practical reasoning". Philosophia 20 (1–2): 227–240. doi:10.1007/BF02382593. 
• Watson, Robert N.; Seiden, Melvin (1992). "Measure for Measure: Casuistry and Artistry". Shakespeare Quarterly 43 (2): 242. doi:10.2307/2870893. 
• Weinstein, Bruce David (1989). The Possibility of Ethical Expertise (Diss. Georgetown U).
• Weston, Anthony (1984). "Drawing Lines". Monist 67 (4): 589–604. doi:10.5840/monist198467440. 
• Wildes, K. Wm. (1993). "The Priesthood of Bioethics and the Return of Casuistry". Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 18 (1): 33–49. doi:10.1093/jmp/18.1.33. PMID 8433047. 
• Wildes, Kevin Wm., S.J. (1993). The View for Somewhere: Moral Judgment in Bioethics (Diss. Rice U).
• Winston, Morton E. (1990). "Ethics Committee Simulations". Teaching Philosophy 13 (2): 127–140. doi:10.5840/teachphil199013220. 
• Zacker, David J. (1991). Reflection and Particulars: Does Casuistry Offer Us Stable Beliefs About Ethics? (M.A. Thesis, Western Michigan U).
• Zaner, R. M. (1993). "Voices and Time: The Venture of Clinical Ethics". Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 18 (1): 9–31. doi:10.1093/jmp/18.1.9. PMID 8433050. 

External links

• Dictionary of the History of Ideas: "Casuistry"
• Accountancy as computational casuistics, article on how modern compliance regimes in accountancy and law apply casuistry
• Mortimer Adler's Great Ideas – Casuistry
• Summary of casuistry by Jeramy Townsley
• Casuistry – Online Guide to Ethics and Moral Philosophy
• Casuistry – Oxford Encyclopedia of Rhetoric catalogued at she-philosopher.com