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Objection 1: It would seem that there can be prudence in sinners.
For our Lord said (Lk. 16:8): "The children of this world
are more prudent in their generation than the children of light." Now
the children of this world are sinners. Therefore there be prudence in
sinners.
Objection 2: Further, faith is a more excellent virtue than
prudence. But there can be faith in sinners. Therefore there can be
prudence also.
Objection 3: Further, according to Ethic. vi, 7, "we say that
to be of good counsel is the work of prudent man especially." Now
many sinners can take good counsel. Therefore sinners can have
prudence.
On the contrary, The Philosopher declares (Ethic. vi, 12)
that "it is impossible for a man be prudent unless he be good." Now
no inner is a good man. Therefore no sinner is prudent.
I answer that, Prudence is threefold. There is a false prudence,
which takes its name from its likeness to true prudence. For since a
prudent man is one who disposes well of the things that have to be done
for a good end, whoever disposes well of such things as are fitting for
an evil end, has false prudence, in far as that which he takes for an
end, is good, not in truth but in appearance. Thus man is called "a
good robber," and in this way may speak of "a prudent robber," by
way of similarity, because he devises fitting ways of committing
robbery. This is the prudence of which the Apostle says (Rm.
8:6): "The prudence of the flesh is death," because, to wit,
it places its ultimate end in the pleasures of the flesh.
The second prudence is indeed true prudence, because it devises
fitting ways of obtaining a good end; and yet it is imperfect, from a
twofold source. First, because the good which it takes for an end,
is not the common end of all human life, but of some particular
affair; thus when a man devises fitting ways of conducting business or
of sailing a ship, he is called a prudent businessman, or a prudent
sailor; secondly, because he fails in the chief act of prudence, as
when a man takes counsel aright, and forms a good judgment, even about
things concerning life as a whole, but fails to make an effective
command.
The third prudence is both true and perfect, for it takes counsel,
judges and commands aright in respect of the good end of man's whole
life: and this alone is prudence simply so-called, and cannot be in
sinners, whereas the first prudence is in sinners alone, while
imperfect prudence is common to good and wicked men, especially that
which is imperfect through being directed to a particular end, since
that which is imperfect on account of a failing in the chief act, is
only in the wicked.
Reply to Objection 1: This saying of our Lord is to be understood
of the first prudence, wherefore it is not said that they are prudent
absolutely, but that they are prudent in "their generation."
Reply to Objection 2: The nature of faith consists not in
conformity with the appetite for certain right actions, but in
knowledge alone. On the other hand prudence implies a relation to a
right appetite. First because its principles are the ends in matters
of action; and of such ends one forms a right estimate through the
habits of moral virtue, which rectify the appetite: wherefore without
the moral virtues there is no prudence, as shown above (FS,
Question 58, Article 5); secondly because prudence commands
right actions, which does not happen unless the appetite be right.
Wherefore though faith on account of its object is more excellent than
prudence, yet prudence, by its very nature, is more opposed to sin,
which arises from a disorder of the appetite.
Reply to Objection 3: Sinners can take good counsel for an evil
end, or for some particular good, but they do not perfectly take good
counsel for the end of their whole life, since they do not carry that
counsel into effect. Hence they lack prudence which is directed to the
good only; and yet in them, according to the Philosopher (Ethic.
vi, 12) there is "cleverness," [deinotike] i.e. natural
diligence which may be directed to both good and evil; or "cunning,"
[panourgia] which is directed only to evil, and which we have stated
above, to be "false prudence" or "prudence of the flesh."
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