The Implications of Clinical Medical Diagnostic Methods for Getting Rid of Ethical Dilemmas: Tracing the Revival of Casuistry

The persistent reliance on deductive reasoning rooted in moral principles is a key factor contributing to the intractability of ethical dilemmas. As a case-based reasoning, casuistry provides a potential pathway out of such dilemmas, but no mature method model has been developed. Clinical diagnosis and casuistry share methodological similarities as forms of practical reasoning, providing a template for constructing a methodology for casuistry. Drawing on clinical diagnostic methods, casuistic reasoning involves examining the specific circumstances of the case at hand, classifying the case, and drawing analogies with precedent cases. It also considers how the authority of the adjudicating subject affects the legitimacy of the conclusion—forming the internal and external authority of casuistic reasoning respectively.