Jonah carey says casuistry is a way to make sense of difficult problems without retreating into the trenches of principle. The philosopher stephen tulman once said that if all principles do as divide us, why do we bother talking about them at all? i don't like to take my dogs in when i'm lecturing on descartes, because i'm compelled to say that descartes thought the dogs were merely machines. And this is an insult i'm not prepared to expose them to in my presence.