Prudence is defined as the quality of being prudent; where prudent is the quality of having good judgement or wisdom. Moreover, wisdom is the quality of good judgement gained through experience and knowledge. Thus, prudence is the quality of using one’s experience and knowledge towards good judgement. Synonymous with caution, prudence involves awareness and concern for one’s actions or words. However, this caution does not incorporate blindly enforcing contemporary societal beliefs; caution necessitates wisdom in order to differentiate fair protection from keeping things the same. The common example of prudence displays how ‘it is sometimes better to say nothing at all than to say anything.’ This phrase can additionally be substituted for ‘it is sometimes better to do nothing at all than to do anything.’ Therefore, prudence is the virtue where one examines a circumstance and determines their proper …show more content…
You can see prudence in The Fellowship of the Ring where Frodo determines whether or not he should take Sauron’s ring to Mordor. Frodo considers the right thing to do, which would be to destroy the ring himself, and he ends up taking up this task. Frodo exercises prudence in this example as he examines his circumstance, recognizes the right action and follows through with his decision. Moreover, Frodo decides to do the morally correct thing in his circumstance which would be to free his world of this corrupt evil and to bring freedom, justice to all people of Middle Earth. An additional example of prudence, or in this case the lack of prudence, is also found in Frodo’s decision to take the ring to Mordor. Boromir contended with the idea of a weak, feeble Hobbit from taking up this insurmountable task. Boromir’s prudence leads him to advocate for a better equipped person for this task; Boromir’s good judgement and experience makes him argue with letting an inexperienced Frodo take up this
In The Fellowship of the Ring and in the Star Wars trilogy, Frodo Baggins and Luke Skywalker, the archetypal heroes, demonstrate the heroic quality of selflessness for Frodo when he leaves the Shire then when he takes up the ring at Rivendell and finally when he attempts to leave Mordor by himself, and Luke shows selflessness when he goes to save Leia and then when he joins the Rebel Alliance and finally when he goes to redeem his father. Both Frodo and Luke demonstrate selflessness in their respective worlds with Frodo when he leaves the Shire and when Luke goes to save Leia. Leaving the Shire and accepting the mission that Gandalf gives him to bring the ring to Rivendell, Frodo shows his selflessness. He admits what he is stating “‘I am
At times in a person’s life, they might come across a few situations that leave them with a major decision between two or more options that challenge what they believe or what they might think is wrong or right. These are known as ethical dilemmas. Be it seeing a friend steal something and choosing between being honest and speaking up or letting it go. It can also be getting paid more than you earned and deciding if you’re going to be greedy and keep the money or return it. We run into these situations in our lives, some bigger and more influential on our destiny’s while others are small with no real consequences.
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, a Jewish rabbi, wrote extensively about many topics. Luzzatto’s writings can be applied to us today and from which we can learn a great deal. Two of the topics that we discussed in seminar that Luzzatto addresses were vigilance and alacrity. Vigilance is the process of regarding someone's actions and affairs and about knowing if your actions are right or wrong. In order to be vigilant, two parts are necessary. The first part involves determining what is considered evil and what is good. By doing this, you can make the right decision and do the right thing. The second part is to “see if his own deeds are good or evil,” which means that you have to decide if your actions were good or evil. This applies at
Practical wisdom is knowledge of how to secure the ends of human life and for a man who demonstrates this quality his mark should be to be able to tell what is good for himself and his ultimate goal of a good life. In this paper, I will be agreeing with Aristotle’s idea that virtue is a state of character concerned with ones choices and one’s ability to reason.
“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them,” (55). The One Ring controls Gollum, Bilbo, Boromir, and Frodo in attempts to return to Sauron, Its Creator, the Lord of the Rings, and the utmost evil present in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels. But the Ring never achieves Its goal because each character possesses a unique set of skills which resist the evil temptations of the Ring. Gollum is the first victim of the Ring, with no knowledge of Its powers or guidance away from Its control. Bilbo is the second ring bearer, with an almost complete knowledge of the Ring’s power still has difficulty resisting the Ring’s temptation. Gandalf guides Bilbo to constantly resist the evil of the Ring. Boromir never gets his hands on the Ring but craves Its power thinking he can use it for good, ignoring the guidance offered to him at the Council of Elrond. Frodo has the most knowledge and guidance of all the characters but also seems to have the strongest temptations. J.R.R. Tolkien uses characterization in the Fellowship of the Ring to prove that people without a longing for power resist temptation through knowledge, good habits, and guidance.
prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance are vital facets in the decision-making process. Prudence affects moral judgment, sensitivity, and intention. It is concerned with the knowledge and practical wisdom. Justice, on the other hand, refers to the permanent attitude to perform what is fair. Another virtue; temperance refers to the desire to pursue what is just while avoiding dangerous undertakings. The fortitude virtue then controls the passions of humans like despair, fear, anger, audacity, and hope. All these elements affect both individual and organizational factors of ethical decision-making (Cabello-Medina,
Forming a good conscience relies heavily, first and foremost on the virtue of prudence. The virtue of prudence is the practice of discerning the good in all circumstances, and choosing the right means of accomplishing it (CCC, 1806). By using our consciences and the virtue of prudence, one can determine what the best outcome of a situation is and strive toward that. In the political world this entails voting for candidates yo...
Position and personal power both have a strong influence on moral courage. With position power, a decision using moral courage is usually not popular, but relatively easy to make, unlike that same decision made under personal power. This is because we usually find compliance when leveraging positional power compared to commitment with the u...
A disturbing thought about man’s ethical barometer is that most of the theories, categories and principles emanate from the point of man’s reason. There is a cause to shudder at the thought of man as the absolute authority of what is right and wrong; what is ethical and what is not. Born into a sinful nature, man will ultimately make decisions that will lead to a moral philosophy that is shaky at best. Even philosophers with the best of intentions fall short to God’s model for the order, organization, and meting out of ethical actions. Because of man’s finite vision of what should be done to improve the present situation, mankind will always be found lacking in making the best ethical decisions; not being able to see the long term outcome and the impact those decisions and actions would have on others in the world.
Haslam, N (1991). Prudence: Aristotelian perspectives on practical reason. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 21(2), 151-166.
The role of practical wisdom is to be able to pre-determine which action will ensure Eudaimonia or happiness in different situations. In the words of Aristotle he explains, “Virtue makes the goal right, practical wisdom the things leading to it”. It is important to exhibit the virtue of practical wisdom because one must have the skill to make conscientious decisions, to benefit one. To practice practical wisdom, one must obtain two kinds of virtues, intellectual and moral. In conclusion, practical...
I found that when writing I was thinking about decisiveness in the sense that a person has a clear definition of what is right and what is wrong. This is crucial in deciding if a person lives a good life because by my definition in order to live a good life one must be a moral exemplar and in order to be considered a morally significant person you have to establish what you decide is in the right and what is in the wrong. I found the section by Thomas Hobbes to be particularly interesting because he takes a very different view on the morality of people. Hobbes argument basically states that we a people are morally selfish and we only seek out for our best interest and the only reason we don’t live in a “state of nature” (dog eat dog world) is because we abide by the “social contract” (government). He says that we conform to this “social contract” because it looks out for our best interest and protects ourselves from others in society by being able to hold those others accountable due to having a third party, the government. I know this example from our readings seems kind of odd to use but I chose this section because I wanted to drive home the point I’m trying to get at. That being that in order to live a good life people must be decisive in knowing what is right and wrong, because if people are not then we would fall into this hypothetical
One of the desirability of virtue ethics is the elasticity to measure each situation independently, searching for action guidance in bearing in mind what a naturally virtuous person would do. This would be clarified and informed by the pertinent facts and personal ethical sensitivities of that situation. This permits and heartens creative resolutions to very difficult problems, which may be harder to disc...
Born into a world of contradictory and opposing forces of control, authority, and traditional obligations, a young person does not have the means to make judgments but is swept along on the tide of what others say must be done. If one's heart or conscience cries out for a different course, lack of experience and of developed judgment can be fatal. Role models are required who can model the skills of weighing the pros and cons, of balancing the heart and the head, of inquiring and seeking out knowledge before a final decision is made. Friar Lawrence spoke this lesson, but cryptically, through the metaphors of poison/medicine and haste/patience, yet he did not model the exercise of inquiring, balancing, and weighing before acting. It suddenly occurred to me that the wisdom that Friar Lawrence advocates but does not exactly inspire, is exactly the sort of wisdom that we were exercising in the classroom as we...
Ethics are known as understanding what is right and wrong. It means more than just abiding the laws, which include lists of ‘to do’ and ‘not to do’. Every individual responds differently towards ethical behavior. It depends on one’s personal core values to shape their self-identity. (Kerns 2011) With the set of morals and values, it serves as a motivational guide in life, helping one to differentiate what are the appropriate actions to be taken in dealing with ethical issues. In this society, people are often influenced by temptations around them; this applies even to an ethical individual.