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Epistemology Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Epistemology

Empiricism And Wesleyan Ethics, Kevin Twain Lowery Apr 2011

Empiricism And Wesleyan Ethics, Kevin Twain Lowery

Faculty Scholarship – Theology

In this article, the open-endedness of Wesleyan ethics is affirmed; attempts to articulate a system of Wesleyan ethics have been few, and it would be virtually impossible for any single expression of Wesleyan ethics to be regarded as definitive for the tradition as a whole. The fact that Wesleyan ethics is a relatively open field allows it to be developed in a number of ways that can still be regarded as Wesleyan or are at least consistent with basic Wesleyan commitments. Wesley’s allegiance to empiricism is then recalled, and the importance of addressing epistemological questions is stressed. An outline of …


The Persistence Of Casuistry: A Neo-Premodernist Approach To Moral Reasoning, Richard Arthur Mercadante Jan 2011

The Persistence Of Casuistry: A Neo-Premodernist Approach To Moral Reasoning, Richard Arthur Mercadante

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The general purpose of this dissertation is to explore casuistry--case-based reasoning--as a discredited, rehabilitated, and, most importantly, persistent form of moral reasoning. Casuistry offers a much needed corrective to principle-based approaches. I offer a defense of a "principle-modest" casuistry and explore the epistemology of casuistry, describing the prerequisite knowledge required for casuistry. I conclude by arguing that casuistry is best understood as a neo-premodernist approach to moral reasoning.