title: The casuistic method of practical ethics.
abstract: This essay concerns itself with the methodology of practical ethics. There are a variety of methods employed in ethics. Although none have been firmly established as dominant, it is generally agreed that casuistry, or the case-based method, is one important strategy commonly used for resolving ethical issues. Casuists compare the case under consideration to a relevantly similar (analogous) precedent case in which judgements have already been made, and they use these earlier judgements to determine the proper resolution of the present case. In this article, I try to provide a better understanding of the nature of contemporary casuistry. To accomplish this, I explain (in the first section) the basic features of casuistic reasoning. The second section focuses on the logic of casuistry. By assessing casuistic reasoning from the logical viewpoint, casuistry can be reconstructed as a logically correct method of reasoning. The third section looks at casuistry from the epistemic point of view and investigates the justificatory force of casuistic reasoning. Finally, in the fourth section, I show the usefulness of formal casuistry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, P.O. Box 110135, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. georg_spielthenner@yahoo.de.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Spielthenner
mesh_terms: D032764:Casuistry; D026689:Ethical Analysis; D028663:Ethical Theory; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D008128:Logic
keywords: Analogy; Case-based method; Casuistry; Ethical reasoning; Methods of practical ethics; Relevant similarity