Casuistry

A case analogy approach to ethics that involves abstracting morally relevant features from one particular case and applying them to other similar cases. Casuistry can generally be described as the method of bringing general moral norms or principles to bear on particular cases for the purposes of informing conscience and guiding conduct. In this respect, every ethical theory makes use of some casuistic reasoning, since ethics itself is necessarily concerned with what one ought to do in the particular circumstances of human life. It is important to distinguish this general understanding from the method of high casuistry. High Casuistry insists that the specific particulars and contextual nuances of concrete cases are the ultimate determinants of what is morally relevant in any given case. What most distinguishes high casuistry from other ethical methods that emphasize situational particulars, such as situation ethics, is that it utilizes a bottom-up method of justification. [See: Jonsen, A. The Abuse of Casuistry: A History of Moral Reasoning (Berkeley, CA.: University of California Press, 1988). Keenan, J. and T. Shannon. The Context of Casuistry (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1995).]

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