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Defending Probabilism: The Moral Theology of Juan Caramuel. By Julia A. Fleming. [Moral Traditions Series.] (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. 2006. Pp. xxiv, 201. $44.95. ISBN 978-1-589-01113-7.)
Long considered to be an outmoded intellectual tradition, late-Scholastic moral thought is currently enjoying a renewed and, as it appears, sustained scholarly interest. To a large extent, this new interest has been kindled by the emergence of a modernized kind of case ethics, which resulted from a serious reflection on, and discussion about, the methods to be used in moral problemsolving. In this debate, the question of moral certitude and incertitude played-and continues to play-a crucial role. Following the lead of Aristotle, several ethicists have insisted on the fact that ethics is not a science that defines absolutely certain and universally applicable principles, but rather is a form of practical wisdom dealing with a multitude of particular concrete situations that leaves room for moral doubt and difference of opinion.
It is precisely between the two poles of doubt and certainty that the field of the early-modern moral theologian and casuist was situated....