ETHICS

Summary Practical wisdom is the result of experience, but good sense is an innate characteristic. Just as native intelligence can develop into theoretical wisdom, innate good sense can develop into practical wisdom. Good sense is the quality we say a man has when he is able to forgive others (i.e., […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book VI: Chapter XI – Practical Wisdom and Good Sense

Summary Understanding and practical wisdom, though different things, operate in the same sphere. Practical wisdom issues commands, since its aim is to tell us what we ought and ought not to do, and understanding passes judgment on these commands. Understanding does not imply either possession or acquisition of practical wisdom. […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book VI: Chapter X – Practical Wisdom and Understanding

Summary Practical wisdom is the first principle of good deliberation. It enables us to evaluate a situation or problem in terms of its general characteristics and to decide the right way and time to act. Practical wisdom makes it possible correctly to assess the means to an end by giving […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book VI: Chapter IX – Practical Wisdom and Virtue in Deliberation

Summary Political wisdom is an aspect of practical wisdom. The two have many characteristics in common, but their essence and objects are different. Practical wisdom is concerned with securing the good of the individual, political wisdom with securing that of the state. To a certain extent these goals are the […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book VI: Chapter VIII – Practical Wisdom and Politics

Summary Theoretical wisdom, the highest and most noble kind of wisdom, is a union of intuition (intelligence) and science, and comprises complete scientific knowledge in combination with an understanding of the true meaning of what intuition deduces from first principles. A man with theoretical wisdom has exact knowledge of all […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book VI: Chapter VII – Theoretical Wisdom

Summary Intelligence or intuitive wisdom is that by which we grasp the ultimate premises from which science takes its start. Such first principles are grasped by induction, the process whereby experience of a certain number of particular instances enables the mind to grasp a universal truth, which is afterwards seen […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book VI: Chapter VI – Intelligence

Summary Practical wisdom or prudence is a true disposition toward action, by the aid of a right rule with regard to things good and bad for men (i.e., it is the power of right deliberation about things good for oneself). Practical wisdom is the quality of seeing what is good […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book VI: Chapter V – Practical Wisdom

Summary Another quality is needed to do something (i.e., to be active in a certain way or to make something, as distinct from engaging in the activity of making it). This quality is art or applied science, which can be defined as the disposition or characteristic of making things according […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book VI: Chapter IV – Art or Applied Science

Summary There are five faculties or modes which the soul uses to arrive at truth: Pure science or knowledge, which belongs to the scientific faculty. Art or applied science, which belongs to the deliberative (calculative) faculty. Practical wisdom or prudence, which belongs to the deliberative faculty. Intuitive wisdom or intelligence, […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book VI: Chapter III – The Five Modes of Intellectual Expression; Definition of Science

Summary Three elements of the soul control action and the discovery of truth. These are: Sense perception or sensation. Intelligence or reason. Desire or appetite. Sense perception, which is shared by the lower animals, has no part in initiating action and is not relevant to our discussion. Intelligence and choice […]

Read more Summary and Analysis Book VI: Chapter II – The Elements of Intellectual Virtue