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{{Short description|
{{Other uses}}
{{Redirect|Imprudence|the French short story|Imprudence (Maupassant short story)|the racehorse|Imprudence (horse)}}
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'''Prudence''' ({{lang-la|prudentia}}, [[Contraction (grammar)|contracted]] from {{lang|la|providentia}} meaning "seeing ahead, sagacity") is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of [[reason]].<ref>[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prudence Prudence - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary]. Merriam-webster.com (31 August 2012). Retrieved on 2013-07-19.</ref> It is classically considered to be a [[virtue]], and in particular one of the four [[Cardinal virtues]] (which are, with the three [[theological virtues]], part of the [[seven virtues]]). '''Prudentia''' is an allegorical female personification of the virtue, whose attributes are a mirror and snake, who is frequently depicted as a pair with [[Justitia]], the Roman goddess of Justice.
The word derives from the 14th-century [[Old French]] word ''prudence'', which, in turn, derives from the Latin ''prudentia'' meaning "foresight, sagacity". It is often associated with [[wisdom]], [[insight]], and [[knowledge]]. In this case, the virtue is the ability to judge between virtuous and vicious actions, not only in a general sense, but with regard to appropriate actions at a given time and place. Although prudence itself does not perform any actions, and is concerned solely with knowledge, all virtues had to be regulated by it. Distinguishing when acts are [[courage]]ous, as opposed to [[Recklessness (psychology)|reckless]] or [[Cowardice|cowardly]], is an act of prudence,
In modern [[English language|English]], the word has become increasingly [[synonym]]ous with cautiousness. In this sense, prudence names a reluctance to take risks, which remains a virtue with respect to unnecessary risks, but, when unreasonably extended into over-cautiousness, can become the [[vice]] of cowardice.
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The function of prudence is to point out which course of action is to be taken in any concrete circumstances. It has nothing to do with directly willing the good it discerns. Prudence has a directive capacity with regard to the other virtues. It lights the way and measures the arena for their exercise. Without prudence, bravery becomes foolhardiness; mercy sinks into weakness, free self-expression and kindness into censure, humility into degradation and arrogance, selflessness into corruption, and temperance into fanaticism. Culture and disciplined actions should be about the beneficial action. Its office is to determine for each in practice those circumstances of time, place, manner, etc. which should be observed, and which the Scholastics comprise under the term "medium rationis". So it is that while it qualifies the intellect and not the will, it is nevertheless rightly styled a moral virtue.<ref name="delany">{{cite web| url = http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12517b.htm| title = Delany, Joseph. "Prudence." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 2 May 2014}}</ref>
Prudence is considered the measure of moral virtues since it provides a model of ethically good actions. "The work of art is true and real by its correspondence with the pattern of its prototype in the mind of the artist. In similar fashion, the free activity of man is good by its correspondence with the pattern of prudence." ([[Josef Pieper]]) For instance, a [[stockbroker]] using his experience and all the data available to him decides that it is beneficial to sell stock A at 2PM tomorrow and buy stock B today. The content of the decision (e.g., the stock, amount, time, and means) is the product of an act of prudence, while the actual carrying out of the decision may involve other virtues like fortitude (doing it in spite of fear of failure) and justice (doing his job well out of justice to his company and his family). The actual act's "goodness" is measured against that original decision made through prudence.<ref>Although Aristotle himself would have considered this way of making money contemptible: "[T]hose who ply sordid trades...and those who lend small sums and at high rates...take more than they ought and from wrong sources. What is common to them is evidently sordid love of gain...[A]ll such forms of taking are mean." (''[[Nicomachean Ethics]]'' 1121b31)</ref>
In Greek and Scholastic philosophy, "form" is the specific characteristic of a thing that makes it what it is. With this language, prudence confers upon other virtues the form of its inner essence; that is, its specific character as a virtue. For instance, not all acts of telling the truth are considered good, considered as done with the virtue of honesty. What makes telling the truth a virtue is whether it is done with prudence.
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== In rhetoric ==
[[File:Main_ornate_of_the_facade,_Castellania_Malta.jpeg|thumb|left|Main gate of 18th-century [[Castellania (Valletta)|Castellania]] portraying [[Lady Justice]] and [[Prudentia|Lady Prudentia]] above]]
[[Phronesis]], or practical wisdom, holds an important place in [[Rhetoric|rhetorical theory]] as a central aspect of judgment and practice. [[Aristotle]]'s notion of phronesis fits with his notes on rhetoric because neither, in his estimation, could be reduced to an ''[[episteme]]'' or a ''[[techne]]'', and both deal with the ability to deliberate about contingent, variable, or indeterminate matters.{{citation needed|date=March 2016}}
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