Philosophy

1. Evaluate
and
Exercise
Prudence in
Choices

2. •"The choices we make today will
take us to our future."
• This is a cliché that is usually considered when one makes a
critical decision in life, that is why a person should not only
think twice but many times when weighing the negative and
positive results that may arise from his/her decision until
he/she finally decides.

3. • Indeed, in facing this life, it is natural for any individual to
make decisions whether it turns out to be easy or difficult. As
much as possible, there should be no regret in every
decision made, for a person to come up with careful
decisions in life.
To make it simple, a person must be prudent in making
decisions.

4. Activity 1: Coping with the “NEW NORMAL” by applying the
virtue of prudence.
Directions. List down 5 activities in column 1 that enable you to do
during the pandemic and give your reason/s in column 2.
ACTIVITY REASON
Example: Wearing of face mask
& face shield
To protect ourselves from acquiring the
virus & at the same time, to prevent us
from transmitting the disease.
1.
2.
3.
4.

5. Activity 2: Taking actions.
Directions: Write the word TRUE if you agree with the
statement and write FALSE if you do not agree with the
statement. Remember: Prudence is making choice/decision
not only for yourselves but for the good of others.
1.Staying at home during the pandemic.
2.Giving donations for the purchase of medical equipment and food for
our front-liners.
3.Planting vegetables and other varieties of flowering and indoor plants
that will serve as stress reliever.
4.Donating relief goods for those who have lost their income or
livelihood.

6. Prudence
• (Latin: prudentia,
contracted from
providentia meaning
"seeing ahead,
sagacity") is the
ability to govern and
discipline oneself by
the use of reason.

7. Prudence
• being careful about
your choices, stopping
and thinking before
acting. It is a strength
of restraint.

8. Prudence
• When you are prudent, you are not
taking unnecessary risks, and not saying
or doing things that you might later
regret.
• If you are high in prudence, you are able
to consider the long-term consequences
of your actions.
• Prudence is a form of practical
reasoning, the ability to examine the
potential consequences of your actions
objectively, and to control yourself based
on that examination.
• Prudence involves far-sighted planning
as well as short-term, goal-directed
planning. It is often referred to as
cautious wisdom, practical wisdom, and

10. • St. Thomas Aquinas ranked prudence as the first cardinal virtue
because it is concerned with the intellect.
• Aristotle defined prudence as recta ratio agibilium, "right reason applied
to practice."
• It is the virtue that allows us to judge correctly what is right and what is
wrong in any given situation. When we mistake evil as good, we are not
exercising prudence—in fact, we are showing our lack of it.
• Since it is so easy to fall into error, prudence requires us to seek the
counsel of others, particularly those who know how to make sound
judgments of morality.

11. • Disregarding the pieces of advice or warnings of others
whose judgment does not coincide with ours is a sign of
imprudence.

12. • For Aristotle, prudence or practical wisdom is a virtue of
thought that is practical rather than theoretical and
deliberative rather than intuitive.
• The prudent person is the one who is truly just,
courageous and temperate, and the good person is
truly good only if he is prudent.

13. • The worth of prudence consists not in thought, but in its
application to action, which is the end of the practical reason.
• Wherefore if any defect occurs in this, it is most contrary to
prudence, since, the end being of most important in
everything, it follows that a defect which touches the end is
the worst of all.
•

14. • Prudence is the knowledge of how to act, how to conduct
one's life rightly.
• St. Augustine says that prudence is "the knowledge of
what to seek and what to avoid.
• Prudence belongs to the knowing faculty of the soul,
rather than to the appetitive faculty; that is, it belongs to
the intellect rather than to the will.

15. • Prudence is not just a general grasp or understanding of
the right procedure.
• It serves a man in the concrete and individual
situations that makes up his daily life.

16. • Prudence is one of the cardinal virtues.
• It is, strictly speaking, a guide to the right action on the
part of the will, and hence it shares the nature of moral
virtue, that is, a will-virtue.
• Although prudence suffuses the other moral virtues, it is
a distinct and special virtue on its account.

17. • Prudence does not set up the end and purpose of the
moral virtues but regulates how these virtues operate to
their determinate ends. It does not indicate what the
moral virtues are supposed to do but shows them the
right way to do it.
• Prudence discerns the mean or measure of moral
virtues, and sees how their actions can be reasonable,
and not impaired either by excess or deficiency. For
prudence is the knowledge of how things ought to be

18. • As Aristotle says (Ethic. vi), prudence gives orders.
Prudence commands. It does not take over the work of
the will. It shows with certitude and authority how the
will ought to choose. And, to a reasonable will, this
amounts to a command. This function of commanding is
the chief act of prudence.
• Prudence gives commands in no aloof, detached
fashion. Prudence is ever careful, watchful, solicitous
that a person's conduct should be right.

19. • Prudence is not only a private virtue, looking solely to the
individual good conduct of a person; it also serves the
common good.
• St. Paul (I Cor. 10:33) indicates the social function of
prudence when he says, "Not seeking that which is
profitable to myself, but to many, that they may be
saved.“

20. • Prudence is not forgotten. Forgetfulness may, indeed,
hinder prudent action, but the virtue itself is not lost
through forgetting.

21. What is actually the benefit of
being prudent?
Do we have to be prudent?
Are we all prudent?

22. Reflection:
Directions: Express your opinion on the quotation below.
Write your answer on a sheet of paper.