for
instance, to mention the most visible, the things
1 of which the
celestial system is composed.
[
5]
These considerations therefore show that Wisdom is both Scientific Knowledge and
Intuitive Intelligence as regards the things of the most exalted
2 nature. This is why people say that men like
Anaxagoras and Thales
3 ‘may be wise
but are not prudent,’ when they see them display ignorance of their own
interests; and while admitting them to possess a knowledge that is rare, marvellous,
difficult and even superhuman, they yet declare this knowledge to be useless, because
these sages do not seek to know the things that are good for human beings.
[
6]
Prudence on the other hand is concerned with the affairs of men,
and with things that can be the object of deliberation. For we say that to deliberate well
is the most characteristic function of the prudent man; but no one deliberates about
things that cannot vary nor yet about variable things that are not a means to some end,
and that end a good attainable by action; and a good deliberator in general is a man who
can arrive by calculation at the best of the goods attainable by man.
[
7]
Nor is Prudence a knowledge of general principles only: it must also take account of
particular facts, since it is concerned with action, and action deals with particular
things. This is why men who are ignorant of general principles are sometimes more
successful in action than others who know them:
4 for instance, if a man knows that light
meat is easily digested and therefore wholesome, but does not know what kinds of meat are
light, he will not be so likely to restore you to health as a man who merely knows that chicken is wholesome; and in other
matters men of experience are more successful than theorists. And Prudence is concerned
with action, so one requires both forms of it, or indeed knowledge of particular facts
even more than knowledge of general principles. Though here too there must be some supreme
directing faculty.
5
8.
Prudence is indeed the same quality of mind as Political Science, though their essence is
different.
6
[
2]
Of Prudence as regards the state, one kind, as supreme
and directive, is called Legislative Science
7; the other, as dealing with particular occurrences, has the name,
Political Science, that really belongs to both kinds. The latter is concerned with action
and deliberation (for a parliamentary enactment is a thing to be done, being the
last step
8 in a deliberative
process), and this is why it is only those persons who deal with particular facts
who are spoken of as ‘taking part in politics,’ because it is only
they who perform actions, like the workmen in an industry.
9
[
3]
Prudence also is commonly understood to mean especially
that kind of wisdom which is concerned with oneself, the individual; and this is given the
name, Prudence, which really belongs to all the kinds, while the others are distinguished
as Domestic Economy, Legislature, and Political Science, the latter being subdivided into
Deliberative Science and Judicial Science.
[
4]
Now knowledge
of one's own interest will certainly be one kind of Prudence; though it is very different
from the other kinds,