Lexic.us

Definition of Casuistry

1. Noun. Argumentation that is specious or excessively subtle and intended to be misleading.

2. Noun. Moral philosophy based on the application of general ethical principles to resolve moral dilemmas.

Definition of Casuistry

1. a. 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.

Definition of Casuistry

1. Noun. The process of answering practical questions via interpretation of rules or cases that illustrate such rules, especially in ethics. ¹

2. Noun. (pejorative) A specious argument designed to defend an action or feeling. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Casuistry

1. [n -TRIES]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Casuistry

casually casualness casualnesses casuals casualties casualty casualwear casuarina casuarinas casuist

casuistic casuistical casuistically casuistics casuistries casuistry (current term) casuists casus casus belli casus foederis

caswellsilverite cat's-claw cat's-ear cat's-eye cat's-eye pupil cat's-eye syndrome cat's-foot cat's-paw cat's-tail cat's cradle

Literary usage of Casuistry

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Cornhill Magazine by George Smith (1873)
"But whenever human actions are regulated by conceptions of right and wrong casuistry must exist whether it bears its own name or another. ..."

2. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: Embracing by Johann Jakob Herzog, Philip Schaff, Albert Hauck (1908)
"As the Reformers revived the Pauline idea of a free motive power in faith, casuistry proper was fundamentally set aside, and they even occasionally declared ..."

3. The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the by Charles George Herbermann (1913)
"Since the special function of casuistry is to determine practically and in the ... Should he fail to do so, the blame cannot be attributed to casuistry. ..."

4. The New Englander by William Lathrop Kingsley (1873)
"casuistry. SYSTEMATIC casuistry is properly but the application of ethical principles to particular instances of duty. If moral science be distributed, ..."

5. New Englander and Yale Review by Edward Royall Tyler, William Lathrop Kingsley, George Park Fisher, Timothy Dwight (1873)
"ARTICLE VI—casuistry. SYSTEMATIC casuistry is properly but the application of ethical principles to particular instances of duty. ..."

6. The Making of Character: Some Educational Aspects of Ethics by John MacCunn (1900)
"casuistry denned. unjustifiable. CHAPTER XII PRECEPT (continued) casuistry INJUSTICE is done to casuistry because it is so often taken to imply no more than ..."

7. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1840)
"Ной. IN a former notice of casuistry, we touched on such cases only as were of public bearings, or such as (if private) •were of rare occurrence and of a ..."

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