I.                    Prudence

A.                 Definition

1.                  CCC-1806   Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; "the prudent man looks where he is going.” "Keep sane and sober for your prayers." Prudence is "right reason in action," writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle. It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteerof the virtues); it guides the other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid.

 B.                 The Virtue of Prudence

1.                  In the intellect

It is the knowledge of how to act rightly.

a.                   St Augustine: Prudence is the knowledge of what to seek and what to avoid.

b.                  In reason as its proper subject

c.                   Obj. 2.-Choice is an act of appetitive faculty

How does Thomas answer this objection?  Prudence directs choice by means of counsel.  The important point is the counsel and the practical judgement in the intellect.  See the chart.

2.                  Knowledge of what to do

It is not merely knowledge of what things are.  It is a knowledge of what to do.  Therefore it is said to belong to the practical intellect.

a.                   CNE1130-[Aristotle] says first that the work of a good or faulty mind (i.e., intellect or reason), in the speculative rather than practical order, consists simply in the true and false, in such a way that the absolutely true is its good and the absolutely false is its evil.  To express the true and the false is an essential function of every intellect.  But the good of the practical intellect is not absolute truth but the “conformable” truth, i.e., corresponding to a right appetitive faculty ...

b.                  CNE322-323-The cause of goodness in virtue [is that it is] determined by reason....Because reason can be right or erring, we must perform virtue according to right reason....(323) “Wise” here does not refer to one who is wise simply, knowing the ultimate causes of the whole universe, but rather to one who is prudent, that is, wise in human affairs....

 

3.                  In concrete matters

it is necessary for a man to know both the universal principles of reason and the singulars about which actions are concerned.  It resides in the interior sense which is perfected by memory and experience so as to judge promptly of particular cases.

4.                  A moral virtue

It belongs to prudence to apply right reason to action and this requires a right appetite.  Good, under the aspect of good, that is considered formally by the subject is the object of the appetitive power.  So he says that prudence has the nature of virtue not only as the other intellectual virtues have it, but also as the moral virtues have it.

5.                  Distinct virtue

The virtue of prudence as act or habit has a special object.  It differs from the intellectual virtues of wisdom, knowledge and understanding by a material difference of objects.  The latter are about necessary things.  Prudence is about contingent things, things done, coming from the doer (reference is to human acts).  It differs from the moral virtues by a formal aspect distinctive of powers, the intellective power, wherein is prudence, and the appetitive power wherein is moral virtue.

6.                  What it does

Temperance and fortitude have particular roles with regard to the passions.  The concupiscible appetite is regulated by reason through the virtue of temperance.  The irascible appetite through fortitude.  The end sought of course is proposed by reason and reason dictates that we should act in accord with it.  So prudence has the role of deciding what manner and means one shall achieve the mean of reason in his deeds.  It is concerned with avoiding excess or deficiency.  It tells how things ought to be done.

7.                  Chief act of prudence

Since as we have said we are dealing with the application of right reason to action, we can consider the chart on acts.  We begin at the order of choice, since we are dealing with the means of attaining the end identified by reason.  There are three acts

a.                   Take counsel: I-II.14.1: Choice follows the judgment of reason.  Reason must conduct and inquiry before deciding.  This is counsel.

b.                  Judge what was discovered; which is best

c.                   *Command; applying to action the things counseled and judged.

8.                    For the common good (a. 10)

It is not only about the individual’s good.  Since it belongs to prudence rightly to counsel, judge and command concerning the means of obtaining a due end, it is evident that prudence regards not only the private good of the individual, but also the common good of the multitude.

9.                  Different species of prudence (11)

a.                   Simply prudence

the individual good

b.                  Domestic prudence

is the virtue which governs the reasonable activities of life in a household.  It stands midway between the prudence of the individual and the political prudence which guides the rule of a city, state or nation.

c.                   Political prudence

it includes, in its widest sense, the prudence of a monarch.  But in a stricter way it is the prudence that guides citizens in their loyal obedience to the requirements of government.

10.              Is it in sinners?

Prudence in sinners is a false prudence. Bad end

True prudence but imperfect-not the common good of all; or when he fails in the command. 

True and perfect-good end, takes counsel, judges and commands.  This alone is prudence simply so-called, and cannot be in sinners.  The first is in sinners alone.  The second is common to both the good and the wicked.

Serious sin casts out prudence.  A sinful person in his evil life may exercise a kind of craftiness that has the outer look of prudence, but it is not the genuine article. 

11.              Charity and Prudence

A person in the state of grace has prudence, since he has charity.  Charity cannot exist without prudence.  Acquired prudence of course cannot be in the very young, neither in habit nor in act, since it requires experience and time.  Gratuitous prudence is caused by divine infusion.  In baptized children there is prudence by habit but not by act.  In those with reason, it is also as to act, with regard to the things of salvation.

C.                 Parts of prudence

These are the faculties, perfections and qualities that belong to it somehow.

1.                  Quasi-integral parts

These are those things that seem to be almost a part of the virtue itself: memory, understanding, docility, shrewdness, reason, foresight, circumspection, caution. 

a.                   Memory-Experience is recorded here

Experience, which helps to judge what is right in the majority of cases, helps to guide a person in a right and reasonable fashion in immediate situations.

b.                  Understanding

Not the intellectual power but the right estimation about some final principle which is taken as self-evident.  All deductions are based on some primary principle.

c.                   Docility

Readiness to be taught is a mark of docility.  Because particular matters are of infinite variety and man is not capable of knowing them all, he needs others to teach him.

d.                  Shrewdness

the quick and ready estimate of what is suitable in a situation.  Shrewdness is a habit whereby congruities are discovered rapidly.

e.                   Reason

not as the thinking mind which guides the will, but as the right use of that mind.  It is the work of reason to proceed from certain things to another.  Therefore a person must be an apt reasoner.

f.                    Foresight

the clear view of how the future contingencies may depend upon the present situation.  Prudence is properly about the means to an end.  Many things depend upon divine providence and none on human providence except certain contingent matters.  Future contingents, in so far as they can be directed to the end of man’s life are the matter of prudence.

g.                   Circumspection

stands to present action as foresight stands to future contingencies.  It sees what is suitable here and now in existing circumstances.

h.                      Caution

Having a grasp of good in order to avoid the evil that masquerades as good. 

2.                  Subjective parts

Varieties: domestic, reigning, military, political

3.                  Potential parts

Connected or subordinate virtues: good counsel, synesis (guides judgment in ordinary matters), gnome (guides judgement in exceptional matters).

a.                   Good counsel (euboulia)

It is proper to take counsel since this involves research of the reason about actions to be performed.  Euboulia signifies goodness of counsel or rather a disposition to take a good counsel.