Dmitry Chernikov’s Blog

Knowledge is about all the a posteriori causes and effects. Its other name is “science.” I have speculated that, like wisdom, knowledge is quadriform. So, it may encompass more than the mere “knowedge how.”

Know-how deals with means and ends and is practical, presupposing speculative knowledge, and it describes the various ways in which one can attain a particular end, “if one wanted to” — that is, in the abstract.

Prudence is moral reasoning, such as calculation of the consequences of one’s actions or balancing and “considering all things in” duties. “A prudent man is one who sees as it were from afar, for his sight is keen, and he foresees the event of uncertainties.” He foresees and predicts. Prudence is thus concerned with the best actually available means to satisfy actual ends that people have, such as to maximize benefits and minimize costs, that is, to profit as much as possible. It is concerned with choice, the value of the ends, and the disutility of acquiring and using the means. Discernment of spirits is part of prudence, as it, along with charity, enables a person to make, perhaps crudely, interpersonal utility comparisons. Since morality is fundamentally intersubjective, prudence deals not only with one’s own happiness but with the general good of a community.

While prudence normally counsels the course of action that will yield the highest profit — whether psychic or monetary — it still obeys the mean, as do all moral virtues, insofar as it neither advises to choose what is worse than the best nor seeks impossible satisfactions.

Since prudence is a moral virtue, it offers an imperative that the perceived best action be actually performed. It is precisely prudence which is responsible for that aspect of morality which commands one to do his duty as has been determined by moral reasoning.

There is no prudence in sinners, because they act contrary to their own rightly understood self-interest. They lose rather than profit from their actions. A sinner may be a “prudent robber” (false prudence) and even a prudent “businessman” (true but imperfect prudence) without being prudent generally, with respect to his life as a whole (true and perfect prudence).

Knowledge is concerned with universal laws; prudence must of necessity deal with particular circumstances and singular things.

Wisdom is a speculative virtue, unlike prudence which is practical; wisdom is concerned not with “right” and “wrong” in merely human affairs, as prudence is, but with “good” and “evil” (again, keeping in mind its own quadriformity). And it considers good and evil absolutely, dealing potentially with the highest causes, such as God.