Casuistry

History

The casuistry was used like a method of Recherche adopted in the Enseignement of the Religion and the Psychologie in order to inculcate a moral code. It was also adopted for the study of particular facts in order to lead to the release of general laws. It will fit in the Greek philosophical texts (Socrate, the Cyniques and the Stoïciens), then in the Confucianisme, the ic Judaïsme Talmud, the Islam and in the Christianisme.

The Christ there had recourse during its discussions with the Pharisees but also condemned his excessive employment. The two treaties of Augustin d' Hippone tackle the question of knowing if an good intention excuses a fault, and if it is badly to say a Mensonge while joking as a figure Rhétorique.

Moreover, the casuistry cannot reach the immediate action in its singularity, not being able to prescribe that the done everything solutions, it must be limited to the state of the questions, most complete possible. The casuistry cannot thus replace the judgment of the personal Conscience. Some would like to limit its application to the determination of the serious errors or light, but then, that would lead to the minimalism.

The 17th century marks the apogee of the casuistry at the Catholique S Romans and at the Protestant . At that time, of the thinkers seeking a sure means to avoid the sins, tended to propose an ethical minimalist. To answer the discussions on the use of the Probabilism in the decisions morals, the French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote his Provinciales in 1656, in which it attacked the Jésuites, in particular the morals laxist of which they made proof in their casuistry.

The intention and the fault

Applied to ethics, the casuistry is concerned with duties of the man and the citizen in his life in society. The morals conclusions must be immutable because it are the deduction of revealed truths, but their practical application can vary according to the circumstances. For example in the Ingenuous of Voltaire, the fact of knowing if beautiful Saint-Yves makes a sin while succumbing in advance of the Saint-Pouange minister to save the Ingenuous one, concerns the casuistry: it is a question of determining if the purity of the intention excuses the fault.

The art of subtlety

The casuistry was especially employed by the Jesuits. At the time of the attacks carried against them, one evoked their subtle art to slice the cases of conscience in the direction of a slackened morals, in contradiction with the principles of the casuistry.

The polemic between Jesuits and Jansenists

Jesuits

During 150 years, the Jésuites dominated the European Enseignement. Towards 1740, they managed more than 650 colleges in Europe, had the load of 24 universities and founded more than 200 seminars and houses of study.

Courses of “case of conscience” are registered with the programs and the pupils have as handbooks the institutions morals whose Jésuite J. Azor will publish the first in 1600. These works comprise the practical principles often borrowed from the right and of the casuistries applications; they are very numerous (600) and treat more 20 000 cases! Certain resolutions of " cas" gave a great preponderance to the individual freedom, which one called the “Jésuitisme” - were regarded as laxists. The reactions were virulent, in particular, those coming from the Jansenists.

Jansenists

The Jansenists, especially under the feather of the sympathizer Pascal, tackled not only the Laxisme, but also the idea even of casuistry. According to Pascal and the Jansénisme, the casuistry introduced into the human reason is a source of errors and fished because a Christian must, indeed, control its Conscience only according to the will of God. Two popes prohibited this Laxisme and the casuistry remained the method of moral Théologie Catholique until the 20th century.

And the limits which it comes up against of today…

Since 1950, morals known as of situations forced the casuistry to define its limits, and to make more precise its perception of reality.

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