Com 388: Ethics

What is "phronesis" or prudence?

"Phronesis" is one of Aristotle's five states of intellectual virtue. Since "phronesis" is an intellectual virtue, it is one that helps humans determine the best means to an end that the moral virtues teach us to pursue. Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, refers to "phronesis" as practical wisdom. Practical wisdom is not only about possessing the right moral virtues, but also about having the ability to set out and take the right action for the sake of the good. And this virtual is unusual in being BOTH an intellectual and moral quality. For example, an individual may be faced with numerous choices of good ends or goals and be uncertain of which end, goal, good, or virtue ought to be allowed to dictate our actions in a given situation. What is needed in such situations is both the habit of moral virtue, which can help us to identify the right goal, and the knowledge of "phronesis," which assists us in knowing what ends are actually achievable in the given case and in choosing the right means to those ends. Phronesis is the master virtue that encompasses and orders the various individual virtues. Without practical wisdom one cannot properly possess any of the virtues. Conversely to posses phronesis is to know which virtue is appropriate in particular circumstances and the ability to act on that knowledge. Phronesis, or prudence, is the practical wisdom that links intellectual and moral virtue as well as practical achievement of the good life for both individuals and the state.

How do we develop and strengthen phronesis?

Aristotle argued that humans become virtuous through habit. Thus, one will become prudent if he is able to habitually choose the midpoint of two extremes. There are two opposite extremes for every virtue; one is deficiency and the other is excess. If the virtue is courage, then the vice of deficiency is cowardice, and the vice of excess is rashness. If we continually aim for the midpoint of two extremes, we become prudent.

How is prudence related to Aristotle's concept of the mean?

The mean is how Aristotle conceptualized the choice between virtue and vice. One who is prudent finds middle ground between vices and able to discover how to enact good in each particular case.

How does Karl Wallace define "good reasons"?

a good reason: "a statement offered in support of an ought proposition or of a value-judgement" A reason is good if it is tied to a value and a value is reasonable if it is tied to a reason

How does Walter Fisher define good reasons?

good reasons: elements that provide warrants for accepting or adhering to the advice fostered by any form of communication that can be considered rhetorical rhetorical information:

What problems does Fisher identify with Wallace's conception of good reasons?

no way to distinguish the merit of competing good reasons and the view that ignores the possibility that reasons may affirm values in and of themselves - circular reasoning