CASUISTRY.—(1) Disputation as to conflicting duties, that is, duties which seem to demand attention at the same time, yet cannot be fulfilled simultaneously. In the best sense, Casuistry is a system of the rational grounds for adjustment of such conflict. It does not imply dispute as to right and wrong; it presupposes the absence of such dispute; (2) in an evil sense, equivalent to sophistry, wilful concealment of truth under the subtleties of dialectic.
| A department of ethics «the great object of which is to lay down rules or canons for directing us how to act wherever there is any room for doubt or hesitation» (Stewart, Active Powers, bk. IV. ch. V. sec. 4). The science of cases, or of those special varieties which are for ever changing the face of actions as contemplated by general rules (De Quincey, On Casuistry). |
To casuistry, as ethical, belongs the decision of what are called cases of conscience—that is, cases in which from special circumstances the existence of obligation, or the degree of it, is involved in doubt.
