Transcript

It matters for human happiness not simply that we move, but more importantly that we move well toward the end that perfects us.

For example, it does not suffice for us merely to eat, to speak, and to love in order to be happy.

We have to eat, to speak, and to love well, or according to reason.

To move reasonably toward our good ends is to move humanly toward them.

Acting humanly and rationally in addition to enjoying life's goods contributes to our personal goodness.

The moral virtues, prudence, justice, courage, and temperance, are those qualities of soul that allow us to move rationally toward whatever good end we set out to pursue.

Prudence perfects our intellect, helping us to deliberate well about how best to achieve a chosen goal in a given situation.

Justice perfects our will, helping us always to render others their due.

Courage and temperance perfect our passions, helping us to be drawn to the good and to contend with evil according to right reason.

The Christian tradition has long understood that the moral virtues which are necessary for pursuing our natural good rationally become, in the life of grace, necessary for pursing our supernatural good rationally.

Even when elevated by charity, the moral virtues ensure that the Christian life remains properly rational.

Accordingly, Christian moral theology rightly gives considerable attention to the moral virtues.

Prudence enjoys pride of place among the moral virtues.

To understand why, it is important to distinguish the virtue of prudence from what we commonly call prudence, which is a kind of caution that slows or even hinders action.

As a virtue, prudence inserts truth into action, and it ensures that a good action, properly deliberated, is carried through to completion.

The prudent man, therefore, is not the cautious or timid actor, but the sure and confident one who acts decisively as circumstances demand.

Because prudence shapes man's every deliberate action, it shapes every action of the other moral virtues as well.

There is no act of justice, courage, or temperance that is not also an act of prudence.

The act of prudence unfolds in three principal steps: deliberation, judgment, and command.

After a person forms the intention to do something, like a son who intends to celebrate his mother's birthday, he enters into the step of deliberation in which he considers all the means possible to achieve his chosen end.

In this case, the son considers all of the ways in which he can mark his mother's birthday: give her a call, buy her a gift, take her to dinner, etcetera.

Ordinarily, as a person ponders the available means to achieving his goal, even taking counsel from others to ensure that he doesn't overlook anything, one or two possible means will appear to him as the most preferred or feasible.

With these means in view, the agent enters the second step of prudence, which is judgment.

If a person passes too quickly through the step of deliberation, not calling to mind a sufficient number of the means available to him, he could be guilty of acting precipitously.

Now, at the step of judgment, the person has to judge both the goodness and the appropriateness of the preferred means to his chosen end.

Is the means morally permissible?

Is it appropriate to the circumstances?

Are there any dangers attached to the preferred means?

For example, when considering whether to buy his mother a birthday gift, he should ask himself, does he have the money to purchase a gift?

Does his mother already have what he wants to buy her?

Will she be offended by his proposed gift?

Once the agent makes the judgment that his preferred means is both good and appropriate, he then elects to pursue this means.

The second step of prudence is now complete, and the agent is ready to proceed to step three, which is command.

If a person passes too quickly through the step of judgment, failing to judge the goodness of his proposed action according to all of the relevant criteria, he could be guilty of acting thoughtlessly.

Now, once a possible means to an end is properly deliberated and judged, it is time for the action necessary to pursue the means to be commanded.

An act of the intellect aimed at the will, command is prudence's final and defining act.

It ensures that the means properly deliberated and judged is actually executed.

For example, the son who chooses to buy his mother roses for her birthday must actually do what is necessary to buy and deliver the roses, including ordering them, picking them up, and bringing them to his mother.

As our example shows, it does not suffice to give a present simply to deliberate about it and judge it a good thing to do.

Intellect must command the will so that one's good judgment translates into action.

If a person fails to command the action properly deliberated and judged, he may be guilty of inconstancy.

If he fails to execute what he commands, he may be guilty of negligence.

Prudent action follows the successful completion of all three of these steps.

A failure in any one step results in an imprudent action.

For various historical and ideological reasons, the classical regard for prudence has been collapsed into the modern regard for conscience.

While conscience remains an important component of moral action, it does not do what it is commonly thought to do.

To be sure, individuals should follow their own conscience while acting.

They are even bound to follow their conscience in most instances.

But this means nothing more than that they should exercise their own prudence when acting, particularly at the step of judgment.

No one can intrude and make this judgment for another.

This does not mean, however, that every judgment regarding the goodness of an action is infallibly made.

As one's knowledge of the moral law, one's conscience can be mistaken or even defective.

In order to judge well according to one's conscience, conscience itself must be well-formed.

This means that conscience must be docile to divine and human instruction.

The prudent man, therefore, is the one who deliberates, judges, and commands good action in pursuit of the goods that perfect him and others.

He acts confidently according to his conscience, which he allows to be informed by all truth pertaining to moral action.