Stefania Tutino. Uncertainty in Post-Reformation Catholicism

History has not been kind to the probabilist of early modern Catholicism. He is often portrayed as a dishonest scholar using subtle distinctions to make the immoral appear moral. His hairsplitting logic can turn lies, usury, and adultery into ethical options. Pascal was neither the first nor the last to argue that in the hands of the probabilist—especially of Jesuit stripe—the narrow road of the gospel became the broad avenue of perdition. In her erudite study Uncertainty in Post-Reformation Catholicism: A History of Probabilism, Stefania Tutino provides a detailed genealogy of the rise of probabilism in Catholic moral theology. As the title of her monograph suggests, she interprets probabilism as an epistemological, and not only ethical, project. Probabilism attempted to help the perplexed conscience identify the right course of action when no one course seemed certain. This moral complexity arose against the background of the broader epistemological skepticism occasioned by the discoveries of modern science and the rise of a new global culture.

Conscience · Epistemology · Pascal (unit) · Skepticism · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History of Science and Medicine · Philosophy