SOC SCI 181A Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-16: Cardinal Virtues
27 Apr 2016
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Falls more within the domain of psychology and calculation than within that of morality and duty. Prudence is the disposition that makes it possible to deliberate correctly on what is good or bad for man and through such deliberation to act appropriately (page 32) Without prudence, temperance, courage, and justice could tell us neither what should be done nor how to do it; they would be blind or indeterminate virtues (page 32) For prudence takes the future into account, recognizing all the while that how we confront it depends on us (page 33) Prudence is what differentiates action from impulse and heroes from hotheads (page 34) Prudence determines what to choose and what to avoid, and danger comes under this last category, giving us our modern meaning of prudence as precaution (page 34) Merely loving justice does not make us just, nor does loving peace make us peaceable by itself: deliberation, decision, and action are also required.
