casuistry
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkæzjuːɪstɹi/, /ˈkæʒjuːɪstɹi/, /ˈkæʒuːɪstɹi/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkæʒuːəstɹi/
Audio (Southern England): (file) Audio (US): (file)
- Hyphenation: ca‧su‧ist‧ry
Noun
[edit]casuistry (countable and uncountable, plural casuistries)
- The process of answering practical questions by means of interpretation of rules, or of cases that illustrate such rules, especially in ethics; case-based reasoning. [c. 1712]
- Synonym: casuistics
- 1714, Alexander Pope, Miscellaneous poems and translations, by several hands. Particularly The first book of Statius his Thebais [&c.] by mr. Pope, page 374:
- Cages for Gnats, and Chains to Yoak a Flea; Dry'd Butterflies, and Tomes of Caſuiſtry
- 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 85:
- The letters of Margarita were all that the fondest lover could desire, the eye of a poet linger on, but they did not contain the casuistry which could lead Glentworth to renounce a faith which he had now been led to examine in a manner he had certainly never done before.
- 1968, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, translated by Sidney Monas, Crime and Punishment, published 1866:
- And yet it would seem that the whole analysis he had made, his attempt to find a moral solution to the problem, was complete. His casuistry had been honed to a razor’s edge, and he could no longer think of any objections.
- 1995, Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2, New York, N.Y.: Farrar Straus Giroux, →ISBN, page 47:
- “And if you lose?” Diana enunciated, through a thin grin. She meant to extract casuistry’s penalty in advance.
- An intricate argument, particularly
- (derogatory) Hairsplitting, argument with quibbling detail.
- (derogatory) Sophistry, a specious argument designed to defend an action or feeling.
- 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- I felt it was hopeless to argue against casuistry of this nature, which, if it were carried to its logical conclusion, would absolutely destroy all morality, as we understand it.
- (derogatory) Legalism, argument concerning the text of a written law against all other factors.
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