Book 6

Book 6 Chapter 5: Prudence

• A prudent person can deliberate correctly about those actions that will help him live well and happily
• Prudence is not a science or an art. It isn't a science because we do not deliberate about the stuff we know to be true. It isn't an art because it doesn't deal with creating or making. Prudence deals with decisions about action that will lead to good ends.
• Prudence is "the part of the soul dealing with opinions". This means being able to think about "what is true" to choose the best course of action
• Prudence isn't using knowledge or wisdom. It is a limited kind of excellence in figuring out how to act so that we can get to the good ends we are aiming for.

Book 6 Chapter 6: Understanding

• Of the five ways to attain truth (Chapter 3): prudence, science, and wisdom belong to the intellect (are intellectual virtues)

Book 6 Chapter 7: NOT REQUIRED

• Wisdom is the most "precise"/ exact kind of knowledge
• It is different from prudence and the political art because they both deliberate about how to achieve the good (which can mean different things in different situations)
• Wisdom is concerned with hard knowledge of things that "do not admit to being otherwise". Prudence is about human concerns and deliberation.
• Wise people aren't worried about things like practical thinking/action
• This makes them seem useless, since a wise person doesn't know how to act even for his own good
• A prudent person knows what to suggest is best to do, based on own opinions
• A prudent person is concerned with particular things rather than general, universal knowledge
• Therefore, you can actually be without wisdom or knowledge and still be a prudent person because of experience

Book 6 Chapter 8 (Not required)

• Political science and prudence are similar. Prudence can be involved in legislative work or more specifically with the "political art"
• In a more general sense, a prudent person applies his skills to himself. Aristotle also discusses other types of prudence here.
• Someone who knows themselves well and tends to their own business is considered prudent "spends time on own concerns"
• It's possible to have scientific knowledge but not prudence from lack of experience
• Ex: an 8th grader who knows more algebra than his parents but can't figure out that taking regular showers makes him more socially acceptable
• Aristotle emphasizes that prudence is not knowledge. Remember always that it is concerned with one narrow thing: what is best to do (i.e action)

Book 6 Chapter 12

• Aristotle refocuses the convo: why are we talking about wisdom and prudence again? Wisdom isn't concerned with how to make a person happy. (More on this soon).
• But prudence is directly concerned with human happiness, because its all about noble action. However, just knowing about prudence doesn't help us to acquire or exercise it
• And how does prudence help those who're already virtuous? Technically speaking, they just need enough intelligence to follow the advice of the prudent and do the right things
• Note at this point that Aristotle's given us a very cagey definition of prudence
• He admits as much by saying that we really have to investigate the "perplexities" surrounding it first.
• Though Aristotle's said that wisdom is something superior to prudence, he now says that both are "choiceworthy". Pick one, you can't go wrong.
• Wisdom produces happiness, since it's a virtue. It has prudence and the moral virtues as tools to complete its work.
• Virtue helps by making our choices the correct ones. Prudence helps us with the process of choosing correctly.
• There's also cleverness, which helps get things done once we've chosen on a course of action.
• Cleverness isn't always a positive attribute. If it helps to achieve a "noble" goal, it's a good thing. If not, it is base
• Aristotle reiterates the idea that corruption perverts the entire process of longing, choice, and action. It's for this reason that a bad person can't be prudent.

Book 6 Chapter 13

• Aristotle circles back to virtue. He speaks of it in two ways, the natural and the authoritative
• He says that virtues are present in us in some form from birth, but that we seek a more definitive sense of good
• We need intellect to perfect our virtues. Virtue without intellect is like a strong but blind person: though capable he'll stumble without eyesight
• But virtue in the authoritative sense needs both intellect and prudence to develop. This is because correct reason works right alongside prudence.
• Without prudence, a person can't be wholly good. And without moral virtue, there's no prudence
• Therefore, when we call a person "good" it means that he's also prudent.
• Because prudence is in residence, so are all the other virtues. So prudence is like the King (or Queen) of virtues.
• Why? 1) Prudence is necessary for proper action. 2) It's a virtue belonging to the rational soul. 3) No correct choices can be made without it
• But Aristotle doesn't want to overstate the importance of prudence. It is not really the boss of wisdom or the "better part of the soul"
• Prudence works for wisdom, governing actions that might then lead to the discovery of universal knowledge (ex: wisdom)