Pray For Prudence
What happens when we learn what to do, how to do it and then have the courage to act?
Happiness involves our courageous choice to grow & move forward, as most of our misery is rooted in feeling “stuck” or “sliding” backwards.
When we engage our adventure prudently we have both a 1) vision of the best way forward (What is to be done?) and 2) insights into the best way to do it (How should I do it?)
Aristotle's master virtue for personal growth and flourishing is phronesis or prudence.
While the term can feel old-fashioned or out-of-date, still prudence is a very contemporary reality and is a habit that humans can develop and it is a dispositional character that allows us to engage the two opposed and yet somehow interdependent activities of knowing and doing. It forms a guiding template for all the other virtues and even psychological growth.
Part 1 of 2: Which Path Forward?
The first part of prudence can be conceptualized as standing in a forest where multiple paths diverge ahead of you. Which way do you pick? Do you stop and think for a while? Or maybe even turn back?
The first part of prudence allows us to assess the landscape ahead of us accurately, ensure that our actions align with our values, and ultimately supply us with wisdom to pick the best path forward. This wisdom arrives differently for each one of us in different situations, sometimes as a flash of insight, sometimes over a long period of discernment and reflection.
But mostly, prudence is best sought after in a prayerful, meditative, and reflective state because any past choices we have made quickly and without reflection have led us to the point in our life where we are unsure of what the next step is.
It is common for images and sculptures of the virtue of prudence to depict a figure holding a mirror in one hand and a snake in the other. The mirror symbolizes how much of the work that goes into this virtue involves thinking about our past choices and who you are as a person. The time needed for this reflection could be 10 seconds or 10 hours or 10 days, as prudence is a virtue directly related to your lived experience and is never a formula. As for the snake, we will address this universal symbol of evil in the module Evil Exists. Suffice to say, it reminds us that evil exists in all of us and not all of our problems are someone else's fault.
Part Two: The "How" of What to Do
The second part of prudence is the practice associated with how and when to act once we have intellectual insight into what we need to do. If, for example, you have the insight that your job is not right for you and you need to find a better one, this is the part of prudence that governs questions like: When should I give notice? Do I ask for a raise or another position within? Do I start looking for another job? Should I suck it up and work harder? Should I quit right now? Because this part of prudence governs the intellectual and logical aspects of the first part of the virtue's insight, it is often seen as a regulation of impulsive and rash behavior. Prudence ultimately looks into the future- to your future self - to the potential consequences of your actions and allows you to run quick mental scenarios and thoughts about your future. Because we have so many choices and can act in countless multiple ways, each with its chain of consequences and reactions, we need to hold an open and patient place for the meditative and reflective side of prudence to unfold and nudge us toward the best way forward.
A word about courage
Because your insights into the way forward often lead through a thicket of moral dilemmas, painful confrontations, awkward self-realizations, and non-functioning patterns, we should mention the virtue of courage. This closely associated virtue is the supply of strength and resilience to face our fears and obstacles while allowing us to endure the sometimes painful reflections on our mistakes. Courage helps us overcome the resistance we feel when faced with difficult situations so we can take the first step to improve our situation. Because the path to personal growth always involves some degree of pain and risk, we need to tap into this virtue to give us the strength to act. Courage is often seen as physical bravery and strength, but for our purposes here, courage means the ability to endure the mental discomfort that comes with an honest review of our mistakes, vulnerabilities, and situations where things are not working.