Jesuitic reasoning
- noun
- /ˌdʒɛzʊˈɪtɪk ˈrizənɪŋ/
- Offensive
:
razonamiento jesuítico
- The judge criticized the lawyer's Jesuitic reasoning as an attempt to confuse the jury.
Examples
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Many critics accused the politician of using Jesuitic reasoning in his speeches.
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The philosopher employed Jesuitic reasoning to justify his controversial conclusions.
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Her Jesuitic reasoning left everyone bewildered and unable to follow her argument.
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His argument was full of Jesuitic reasoning that confused everyone.
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The judge criticized the lawyer's Jesuitic reasoning as an attempt to confuse the jury.
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Her Jesuitic reasoning left everyone bewildered and unable to follow her argument.
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Many critics accused the politician of using Jesuitic reasoning in his speeches.
Synonyms
1
9.9
Using clever but wrong reasoning to avoid giving a clear answer
A way of arguing that focuses on small unimportant differences and confuses the issue
Antonyms
1
3.9
A way of thinking or arguing that uses good reasons and evidence to show something is true
How Convoluted
- Offensive
1
3.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally clear: a learner who knows 'Jesuitic' (relating to Jesuits) and 'reasoning' will understand it as 'reasoning characteristic of Jesuits.' However, the specific pejorative sense — excessively subtle, casuistic, or evasive — depends on historical and cultural connotations of 'Jesuitical' that a B1 learner is unlikely to infer, so the expression is only partially predictable.
Etymology
Jesuitic reasoning may come from the name Jesuit, a group of Catholic priests who were long known for using very careful, clever arguments about hard moral questions. So today Jesuitic reasoning means 'reasoning that is too clever or meant to hide the truth'.