casuistry

thumb|Le grand docteur sophiste, 1886 illustration of Gargantua by [[Albert Robida, expressing mockery of his casuist education]]

Casuistry ( ) is a process of reasoning for resolving an ethical dilemma (moral problem) either by extracting or by extending abstract rules from a particular case of conscience, and reapplying those abstract rules to other, different ethical dilemmas. Casuistry is a method of reasoning common to applied ethics and jurisprudence. Moreover, in philosophy, the term casuistry is a pejorative criticism of the use of clever but unsound reasoning, especially in ethical questions, as in the case of sophistry. As a method of reasoning, casuistry is both the: