Phronesis (band) Members

In Ancient Greek philosophy, ( grc, φρόνησις, phrónēsis) is a type of wisdom or intelligence concerned with practical action. It implies both good judgment and excellence of character and habits. Classical works about this topic are still influential today. In Aristotelian ethics, the concept was distinguished from other words for wisdom and intellectual virtues—such as and —because of its practical character. The traditional Latin translation is , which is the source of the English word "prudence".

Ancient Greek philosophy

Plato

Plato was a teacher and friend of Aristotle. In some of his dialogues, Socrates proposes that is a necessary condition for all virtue. Being good is to be an intelligent or reasonable person with intelligent and reasonable thoughts. Having allows a person to have moral or ethical strength.

In Plato's ''Meno'', Socrates explains how , a quality synonymous with ''moral understanding'', is the most important attribute to learn, although it cannot be taught and is instead gained through the development of the understanding of one's own self.

Aristotle

In the sixth book of his ''Nicomachean Ethics'', Plato's student Aristotle distinguished between two intellectual virtues: (wisdom) and , and described the relationship between them and other intellectual virtues. is a combination of , the ability to discern reality, and , which is concerned with things which "could not be otherwise... e.g., the necessary truths of mathematics" and is logically built up and teachable. This involves reasoning concerning universal truths. involves not only the ability to decide how to achieve a certain end, but also the ability to reflect upon and determine good ends consistent with the aim of living well overall.

Aristotle points out that although is higher and more serious than , the highest pursuit of wisdom and happiness requires both, because facilitates . He also associates with political ability.

According to Aristotle's theory of rhetoric, is one of the three types of appeal to character (). The other two are respectively appeals to (virtue) and ( goodwill).

Gaining requires experience, according to Aristotle who wrote that:

is concerned with particulars, because it is concerned with how to act in particular situations. One can learn the principles of action, but applying them in the real world, in situations one could not have foreseen, requires experience of the world. For example, if one knows that one should be honest, in certain situations one might act in ways that cause pain and offense; knowing how to apply honesty in balance with other considerations and in specific contexts requires experience.

Aristotle holds that having is both necessary and sufficient for being virtuous: because is practical, it is impossible to be both and ; i.e., prudent persons cannot act against their "better judgement".

Modern philosophy

Heidegger

In light of his fundamental ontology, Martin Heidegger interprets Aristotle in such a way that ''phronesis'' (and practical philosophy as such) is the original form of knowledge and thus prior to ''sophia'' (and theoretical philosophy).

Heidegger interprets the ''Nicomachean Ethics'' as an ontology of human existence. The practical philosophy of Aristotle is a guiding thread in his '' Being and Time'' according to which "facticity" names our unique mode of being-in-the-world. Through his "existential analytic", Heidegger says "Aristotelian phenomenology" suggests three fundamental —, , and —and that these have three corresponding dispositions: , , and . Heidegger considers these as modalities of Being inherent in the structure of as being-in-the-world that is situated within the context of concern and care. According to Heidegger in Aristotle's work discloses the right and proper way to . Heidegger sees as a mode of comportment in and toward the world, a way of orienting oneself and thus of caring-seeing-knowing and enabling a particular way of being concerned.

While is a way of being concerned with things and principles of production, and a way of being concerned with eternal principles, is a way of being concerned with one's life (qua action) and with the lives of others and all particular circumstances as . is a disposition or habit, which while deliberation is the mode of bringing about the disclosive appropriation of that action. In other words, deliberation is the way in which the phronetic nature of is made manifest.

is a form of circumspection, connected to conscience and resoluteness of human existence () as . As such it discloses the concrete possibilities of being in a situation, as the starting point of meaningful action, processed with resolution, while facing the contingencies of life.

Heidegger's ontologisation has been criticised as that .

Other uses in psychology

According to Kristjansson, Fowers, Darnell and Pollard, Phronesis is about making decisions in regards to moral events or circumstances. There is recent work to bring back the virtue of practical judgement to overcome disagreements and conflicts in the form of Aristotle’s phronesis.

In Aristotle’s work, is the intellectual virtue that helps turn one’s moral instincts into practical action by inculcating the practical know-how to translate virtue in thought into concrete successful action and this will produce by being able to weigh up the most integral parts of various virtues and competing goals in moral situations. Moral virtues help any person to achieve the end, , is what it takes to figure out the right means to gain that end. Without moral virtues, degenerates into an inability to make practical actions in regards to ends that are genuine goods for man and without we may be lost in regards to exercising decisive judgment on any moral matter. The concept of includes the that is the "well-being for all in society."

The common wisdom model was developed by Grossmann, Weststrate, Ardelt, ''et al.'' as explaining the foundation for making moral functioning to occur and by strategy for fitting it to the context of the situation at hand, using major scholars research on the idea that wisdom is best described as morally-grounded excellence in social-cognitive processing, by empirical wisdom scientists. Moral grounding is what the researchers found that the following is the moral basis: "balance of self-interests and other interests, pursuit of truth (as opposed to dishonesty), and orientation toward shared humanity". Secondly this means excellence in social cognitive processing: "context adaptability (e.g. practical or pragmatic reasoning, optimization of behavior towards achieving certain outcomes), perspectivism (e.g. considering diverse perspectives, foresight and long-term thinking), dialectical and reflective thinking (e.g. balancing and integrating points of view, entertaining opposites), and epistemic modesty (e.g. unbiased/accurate thinking, looking through illusions, understanding your own limitations)."

In the social sciences

In ''After Virtue'', Alasdair MacIntyre called for a phronetic social science. He points out that for every prediction made by a social scientific theory there are usually counter-examples. Hence the unpredictability of human beings and human life requires a focus on practical experiences.

In his book ''Cognitive Capitalism'', The psychologist Heiner Rindermann uses the term to describe a rational approach of thinking and acting: "a circumspect and thoughtful way of life in a rational manner". Intelligence supports such a "burgher" lifestyle.

See also

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References

Sources and further reading

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{{Virtues

Aristotelianism
Concepts in ancient Greek ethics
Intelligence
Philosophy of Aristotle
Virtue