Someone who uses clever or tricky reasoning to justify something questionable, often by focusing on special cases instead of general rules.
From Latin 'casus' (case or situation) plus '-ist,' originally referring to theologians who debated specific moral cases, but evolved to mean someone who reasons deceptively.
Jesuit priests were originally called 'casuists' because they specialized in resolving difficult moral cases through detailed logical argument—but the word eventually became an insult for sophistry.
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