Book Review, PRUDENCE,The First Cardinal Virtue, Ravi p.

Book review, PRUDENCE: The First Cardinal Virtue   The detailed chapter sets out establishing the true image of Christian man according to classical theology, but in contemporary terms and application. The author Josef Pieper concisely and brilliantly redefines the concept of prudence, in its original sense, demonstrating how it has become weakened, debased and falsely equated with cunning and reserve. He relates prudence to other virtues, with particular emphasis on justice, fortitude and truthfulness. In the first chapter "The first of the cardinal virtues" the author says prudence is the mould and mother. In other words he says man can be just, brave and temperate. The good man is good in so far as he is prudent. Prudence helps the person when there may be a kind of instinctive governance of instinctual cravings, but only prudence transforms this instinctive governance in to the virtue of temperance. Prudence informs the other virtues it confers upon them the form of their inner essence. This diction expresses the same idea in different manner. How Ten Commandments of god pertain to the realization in practice of prudence. He says every sin is opposed to prudence, injustice, cowardice, intemperance are in direct opposition to the virtues of justice, fortitude and temperance. Everyone who sins is imprudent. The good is prudent beforehand but that is prudent which is in keeping with reality. In colloquial use, prudence always carries the connotation of timorous, small-minded self- preservation, of rather selfish concern about oneself. A 'prudent' man is thought to be one who avoids the embarrassing situation of having to be brave. The 'prudent' man is the 'clever tactician' who contrives to escape personal commitment. Classical Christian ethics, on the contrary, maintains that man can only be prudent and good simultaneously; that prudence is part and parcel of the definition of goodness; that there is no sort of justice and fortitude which runs counter to the virtue of prudence; and that the unjust man has been imprudent before and is imprudent at the moment he is unjust.  Classical theology has been forced to resort to an immense variety of concepts and images in order to systematize the place of prudence and define its meaning with some degree of clarity.     The second chapter deals with the knowledge of reality and the realization of the good. The pre-eminence of prudence means that realization of the good presupposes knowledge of reality. The pre-eminence of prudence means that so-called 'good intention' and so-called 'meaning well' by no means suffice. Here realization of the good presupposes that our actions are appropriate to the real situation that is to the correct realities of human action. The prime thing is that the knowledge of reality must be transformed into the prudent decision which takes effect take place on confrontation with reality. The goodness of concrete human action rests upon the transformation of truth of real things; of the truths must be won and perceived by regarding the reality itself. Prudence, however, is not only cognition, not only knowing what is what. The prime thing is that this knowledge of reality must be transformed into the prudent decision which takes effect directly in its execution. Prudence is immediately directed towards concrete realization. Prudence is that illumination of moral existence which, according to one of the wisest books of the east, is a thing denied to every man who looks at himself.   The third chapter deals with delimitations and contrasts. The first thing that is demanded of an active man is that he knows; but knowing implies that reality stands, bright and clears in the human mind. The good presuppose the true. And the truth is the contrary of all obscuring darkness; it means 'to be manifest'. The first act of the will is not due to the direction of reason, but to the instigation of nature if of a higher cause. The man who does well follows the lines of an architectural plan which has not been conceived by him and which he does not understand as a whole, or in all of its parts. This architectural plan is revealed to man from moment to moment. In each case he sees only a tiny segment of it, as through a narrow crack. Man's good action takes place on confrontation with reality. There is no way of grasping the concreteness of a man's ethical decisions from outside. But no there is a certain way a single way that is through the love of friendship. He says a friend and a prudent friend can help to shape a friend's decision. He does so by virtue of that love which makes the friends problem his own, the friends ego his own. The imperative of prudence is always and in essence a decision regarding an action to be performed in the 'here and now'. By their very nature such decisions can be made only by the person confronted with decision.   The fourth chapter deals with prudence and charity in this the author says that "no moral virtue is impossible without prudence in contrast we can say without moral virtues there is no prudence. Both these sentence are to be found in Thomas Aquinas's treatises on prudence. Only the prudent man, then can be just, brave, and temperate; yet he who is not already just, brave and temperate cannot be prudent. He says to know the ultimate goals of one's own will is not and cannot be the fruit of an ability still to be acquired and perfected in this very life. The goals are present. No one is ignorant of the fact that he must love the good and accomplish it. Prudence gives rise to the moral virtues, or these virtues engender prudence; both statements cannot be true and real in one and the same sense. The content of prudent decision is rather determined by the reality which is the measure of all cognition and decision. Human acts are good in that they correspond to the right standard proper to the human species and peculiar to man's nature, namely right reason; which is God. Man attains right reason in prudence which is right reason in the realm of action. But man attains god in charity. Prudence is called the form of all the moral virtues. But the act of virtue thus established in the mean is, as it were, material in regard to the ordination to the last end. This order is conferred upon the act of virtue by the command of charity is said to be the form of all the other virtues. In this book the author puts forth his ideas how a simple man can be prudent. Here in other way he emphasis more on how a Christian can be prudent. He says the highest and most fruitful achievements of Christian life depend upon the felicitous collaboration of prudence and charity. These sentences are meant to convey the idea that the ethical life is 'organic and constitutes a closed circulatory system. The selection of these chapters ensures that the significance of this book lies in its potential to change the way we read. It places upon us the moral value to respond in certain easy to live a meaningful way.      The book is written by Josef Pieper and translated by Richard and Clara Winston