casuistry

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: cas=u=ist=ry

CIDE DICTIONARY

casuistry, 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.  [1913 Webster]

  "The consideration of these nice and puzzling question in the science of ethics has given rise, in modern times, to a particular department of it, distinguished by the title of casuistry."  [1913 Webster]

  "Casuistry in the science of cases (i.e., oblique deflections from the general rule)."  [1913 Webster]
•  Sophistical, equivocal, or false reasoning or teaching in regard to duties, obligations, and morals.  [1913 Webster]

THESAURUS

casuistry

Christian ethics, Stoicism, aesthetics, altruistic ethics, apologetics, apologia, apology, apparent soundness, aretaics, argument, argumentation, axiology, bicker, bickering, categorical imperative, circularity, comparative ethics, contention, controversy, cosmology, crossed fingers, deception, deceptiveness, defense, delusion, deontology, disingenuousness, disputation, dispute, distortion, egoistic ethics, empiricism, emptiness, epistemology, equivocalness, equivocation, ethical formalism, ethical philosophy, ethics, ethology, ethonomics, eudaemonics, evasive reasoning, evolutionism, fallaciousness, fallacy, first philosophy, flyting, gnosiology, golden rule, hassle, hedonism, hollow mockery, hollowness, hubbub, insincerity, intuitionism, jesuitism, jesuitry, litigation, logic, logomachy, mental philosophy, metaphysics, misapplication, mockery, moral philosophy, mystification, obfuscation, obscurantism, ontology, oversubtlety, paper war, passage of arms, perfectionism, perversion, phenomenology, philosophastry, philosophic doctrine, philosophic system, philosophic theory, philosophical inquiry, philosophical speculation, philosophism, philosophy, plausibility, plausibleness, polemic, polemics, rationalization, rhubarb, school of philosophy, school of thought, science of being, set-to, situation ethics, sophism, sophistical reasoning, sophistication, sophistry, special pleading, speciosity, specious reasoning, speciousness, spuriousness, subtlety, theory of beauty, theory of knowledge, tongue in cheek, uncandidness, uncandor, unfrankness, utilitarianism, value theory, verbal engagement, vicious circle, vicious reasoning, war of words, wrangling

ROGET THESAURUS

casuistry

Duty

N duty, what ought to be done, moral obligation, accountableness, liability, onus, responsibility, bounden duty, imperative duty, call, call of duty, accountability, allegiance, fealty, tie engagement, part, function, calling, morality, morals, decalogue, case of conscience, conscientiousness, conscience, inward monitor, still small voice within, sense of duty, tender conscience, superego, the hell within, dueness, propriety, fitness, seemliness, amenability, decorum, to prepon, the thing, the proper thing, the right thing to do, the proper thing to do, ethics, ethology, deontology, aretology, moral philosophy, ethical philosophy, casuistry, polity, observance, fulfillment, discharge, performance, acquittal, satisfaction, redemption, good behavior, obligatory, binding, imperative, peremptory, stringent, behooving, incumbent on, chargeable on, under obligation, obliged by, bound by, tied by, saddled with, due to, beholden to, bound to, indebted to, tied down, compromised, in duty bound, amenable, liable, accountable, responsible, answerable, right, meet, moral, ethical, casuistical, conscientious, ethological, with a safe conscience, as in duty, bound, on one's own responsibility, at one's own risk, suo periculo, in foro conscientiae, quamdiu se bene gesserit, dura lex sed lex, dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, honos habet onus, leve fit quod bene fertur onus, loyaute m'oblige, simple duty bath no place for fear, stern daughter of the voice of God, there is a higher law than the Constitution.

& Sophistry

N intuition, instinct, association, hunch, gut feeling, presentiment, premonition, rule of thumb, superstition, astrology, faith (supposition), sophistry, paralogy, perversion, casuistry, jesuitry, equivocation, evasion, chicane, chicanery, quiddet, quiddity, mystification, special pleading, speciousness, nonsense, word sense, tongue sense, false reasoning, vicious reasoning, circular reasoning, petitio principii, ignoratio elenchi, post hoc ergo propter hoc, non sequitur, ignotum per ignotius, misjudgment, false teaching, sophism, solecism, paralogism, quibble, quirk, elenchus, elench, fallacy, quodlibet, subterfuge, subtlety, quillet, inconsistency, antilogy, a delusion, a mockery, and a snare, claptrap, cant, mere words, lame and impotent conclusion, meshes of sophistry, cobwebs of sophistry, flaw in an argument, weak point, bad case, overrefinement, hairsplitting, intuitive, instinctive, impulsive, independent of reason, anterior to reason, gratuitous, hazarded, unconnected, unreasonable, illogical, false, unsound, invalid, unwarranted, not following, inconsequent, inconsequential, inconsistent, absonous, absonant, unscientific, untenable, inconclusive, incorrect, fallacious, fallible, groundless, unproved, non sequitur, it does not follow, deceptive, sophistical, jesuitical, illusive, illusory, specious, hollow, plausible, ad captandum, evasive, irrelevant, weak, feeble, poor, flimsy, loose, vague, irrational, nonsensical, foolish, frivolous, pettifogging, quibbling, finespun, overrefined, at the end of one's tether, au bout de son latin, intuitively, by intuition, illogically, non constat, that goes for nothing.