Officia and casuistry : some episodes

The Stoics hold a central place in the development of systematic casuistry. They insist that practical moral reasoning depends on moral theory, and they try to use moral theory to inform moral reasoning about particular cases. We can grasp the significance of their contribution if we see how it underlies the more elaborate system of casuistry that emerges in the sixteenth century from Scholastic moral philosophy. My survey of these different stages in the history of casuistry will leave many gaps, both because I have omitted many relevant sources and because I have passed over many relevant aspects of the sources that I discuss. But perhaps the starkness of the outline that I offer will help to highlight the role of the Stoics.