Sunday, January 31, 2010

A Sunday thought

Some beliefs get stated in a tone that precludes any disagreement. A good example is the condemnation of casuistry. My Oxford Concise Dictionary even defines the word as meaning "the use of clever but false reasoning."

For any dedicated deontologist, this must be the case. Your duty is your duty and any attempt to argue that duty may vary in response to particular cases would destroy any ethical system that defined duty in terms of moral laws.

I'd argue that casuistry is an essential part of any morality worth following. It couldn't be the foundation of that morality but it would be a part of all our moral decision making. I'd go further and say that it is a part of all actual moral decision making. And nowhere is that more true than in the case of Christian morality.

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