Phronesis

{{short description|Ancient Greek word for a type of wisdom or intelligence}}

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In ancient Greek philosophy, {{transliteration|grc|phronesis}} ({{langx|grc|φρόνησις|phrónēsis}}) refers to the type of wisdom or intelligence concerned with practical action. It implies good judgment and excellence of character and habits. In Aristotelian ethics, the concept is distinguished from other words for wisdom and intellectual virtues (such as {{transliteration|grc|episteme}} and {{transliteration|grc|sophia}}) because of its practical character.

Ancient Greek Philosophy

=Socrates=

In some of Socrates' dialogues, he proposes that {{transliteration|grc|phronēsis}} is a necessary condition for all virtue,{{multiref2

|1={{cite book|first=W. K. C.|last=Guthrie|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofgreekph0006guth|url-access=registration|title=A History of Greek Philosophy|volume=6: Aristotle, an Encounter|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofgreekph0006guth/page/348/mode/1up 348]|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1990|edition=revised|isbn=0521387604}}

|2={{cite book|first=Troels|last=Engberg-Pedersen|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=oj83D7aBgKMC&pg=PA236 236]|title=Aristotle's Theory of Moral Insight|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1983|orig-year=1983|isbn=0198246676}} }} and that to be good is to be an intelligent or reasonable person with intelligent and reasonable thoughts.{{cite book|first=Christopher P.|last=Long|title=The Ethics of Ontology: Rethinking an Aristotelian Legacy|url=https://archive.org/details/ethicsofontology0000long/mode/1up|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/ethicsofontology0000long/page/123/mode/1up 123)] |publisher=State University of New York Press|year=2004|isbn=079146119X}} In Plato's Meno, Socrates writes that {{transliteration|grc|phronēsis}} is the most important attribute to learn, although it cannot be taught and is instead gained through the understanding of one's own self.{{cite book|first=Shaun|last=Gallagher|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=rnHarjbLwd0C&dq=Phronesis+Socrates&pg=PA197 197]–199|title=Hermeneutics and Education|chapter=Self-understanding and phronēsis|publisher=State University of New York Press|year=1992|isbn=0791411753}}

=Aristotle=

In Aristotle's work, {{transliteration|grc|phronesis}} is the intellectual virtue that helps turn one's moral instincts into practical action.{{r|NE}}{{cite journal |last1=Kristjansson |first1=Kristján |title=Phronesis as an ideal in professional medical ethics: some preliminary positionings and problematics |journal=Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics |date=2015 |volume=36 |issue=5 |pages=299–320 |doi=10.1007/s11017-015-9338-4 |pmid=26387119 |s2cid=254786871 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11017-015-9338-4 |access-date=5 October 2022|url-access=subscription }} He writes that moral virtues help any person to achieve the end, and that {{transliteration|grc|phronesis}} is what it takes to discover the means to gain that end.{{r|NE}} Without moral virtues, {{transliteration|grc|phronesis}} degenerates into an inability to make practical actions in regards to genuine goods for man.{{cite book |last1=MacIntyre |first1=Alasdair |title=After Virtue |year=1981 |publisher= University of Notre Dame Press |location=US: Indiana |isbn=978-0268006112 |page=154 |edition=2nd revised }}

In the sixth book of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, he distinguished the concepts of {{transliteration|grc|sophia}} (wisdom) and {{transliteration|grc|phronesis}}, and described the relationship between them and other intellectual virtues.{{cite book|author=Aristotle|title=Nicomachean Ethics}}{{rp|[https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/f-h-peters/text/book-6 VI]}} He writes that {{transliteration|grc|Sophia}} is a combination of {{transliteration|grc|nous}}, the ability to discern reality, and {{transliteration|grc|epistēmē}}, things that "could not be otherwise".{{Citation|last=Parry|first=Richard|title=Episteme and Techne|date=2021|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2021/entries/episteme-techne/|encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|editor-last=Zalta|editor-first=Edward N.|edition=Winter 2021|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|access-date=2021-11-28}}He then writes that {{transliteration|grc|Phronesis}} involves not only the ability to decide how to reach a certain end, but the ability to reflect upon and determine "good ends" as well.{{r|NE|at=[https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/f-h-peters/text/book-6 VI] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1140a&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0053 1140a], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1141b&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0053 1141b], [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1142b&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0053 1142b]}}

Aristotle also writes that although {{transliteration|grc|sophia}} is higher and more serious than {{transliteration|grc|phronesis}}, the pursuit of wisdom and happiness requires both, as {{transliteration|grc|phronesis}} facilitates {{transliteration|grc|sophia}}.{{r|NE|at=[https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/aristotle/nicomachean-ethics/f-h-peters/text/book-6#chapter-6-1-8 VI.8] [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Aristot.+Nic.+Eth.+1142a&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0053 1142]}} According to Aristotle's theory of rhetoric, {{transliteration|grc|phronesis}} is one of the three types of appeals to character ({{transliteration|grc|ethos}}).{{cite book|author=Aristotle|title=Rhetoric|at=[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0086.tlg038.perseus-eng1:1378a 1378a]}}

Aristotle claims that gaining phronesis requires gaining experience, as he writes:{{quote|...although the young may be experts in geometry and mathematics and similar branches of knowledge [sophoi], we do not consider that a young man can have Prudence [phronimos]. The reason is that Prudence [phronesis] includes a knowledge of particular facts, and this is derived from experience, which a young man does not possess; for experience is the fruit of years.{{cite book|author=Aristotle|title=The Nicomachean Ethics|url=https://archive.org/details/loeb-classical-library-aristotle-the-nicomachean-ethics-rackham|translator-first=H.|translator-last=Rackham|series=The Loeb Classical Library|at=[https://archive.org/details/loeb-classical-library-aristotle-the-nicomachean-ethics-rackham/page/348/mode/1up VI.8¶5 1142]}} }}

Modern Philosophy

According to philosophers Kristjánsson, Fowers, Darnell and Pollard, phronesis means making decisions in regards to moral events or circumstances. This four-component philosophical account became known as the Aristotelian Phronesis Model, or APM.{{cite journal |last1=Kristjánsso|last2= Fowers|last3= Darnell|last4= Pollard |first1=Kristján|first2=Blaine|first3= Catherine|first4= David |title=Phronesis (Practical Wisdom) as a Type of Contextual Integrative Thinking |journal=Review of General Psychology |date=2021 |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=239–257 |doi=10.1177/10892680211023063 |s2cid=237456851 |doi-access=free }} There is recent{{Anachronism inline|reason=avoid "recent" as it is vague and risks going out of date as the article ages|date=August 2023}} work to return the virtue of practical judgement to overcome disagreements and conflicts in the form of Aristotle's phronesis.{{cite journal |last1=Beresford |first1=E.B. |title=Can phronesis save the life of medical ethics? |journal=Theoretical Medicine |date=1996 |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=209–24 |doi=10.1007/BF00489446 |pmid=8952418 |s2cid=39100551 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00489446 |url-access=subscription|access-date=5 October 2022}}

In Social Sciences

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

In psychologist Heiner Rindermann's book Cognitive Capitalism, he uses the term {{transliteration|grc|phronesis}} to describe a rational approach to thinking and acting, "a circumspect and thoughtful way of life in a rational manner".{{Cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781107279339/type/book|url-access=subscription|title=Cognitive Capitalism: Human Capital and the Wellbeing of Nations|last=Rindermann|first=Heiner|date=2018|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1107279339|edition=1st|doi=10.1017/9781107279339|page=188}}

Critiques of the APM's empirical limitations led to McLoughlin, Thoma, and Kristjánsson developing the neo-Aristotelian Phronesis Model (neo-APM),{{Cite journal |last=McLoughlin |first=Shane |last2=Thoma |first2=Stephen |last3=Kristjánsson |first3=Kristján |date=2025-01-22 |title=Was Aristotle right about moral decision-making? Building a new empirical model of practical wisdom |url=https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0317842 |journal=PLoS One |language=en |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=e0317842 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0317842 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=11753716 |pmid=39841702 |doi-access=free}} which refines the construct using contemporary psychometric techniques. This updated model empirically identified ten distinct components and employed network analysis to highlight the interconnectedness and centrality of key elements, such as aspired moral identity and moral deliberation. The neo-APM thus provides a more nuanced and empirically valid framework for understanding practical wisdom in psychological and educational contexts.

References

Sources and further reading

{{cite journal|author-link=Roberto Andorno|first=Roberto|last=Andorno|url=https://www.academia.edu/1488903|url-access=subscription|title=Do our moral judgements need to be guided by principles?|journal=Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics|year=2012|volume=21|number=4|pages=457–465|doi=10.1017/S0963180112000230 |pmid=22828040 |s2cid=29078995 }}
{{cite journal|author-link=Robert Bernasconi|first=Robert|last=Bernasconi|title=Heidegger's Destruction of Phronesis|journal=Southern Journal of Philosophy|volume=28 supp.|year=1989|pages=127–147}}
{{cite journal|first=Clifford|last=Geertz|url=http://www.iwp.uni-linz.ac.at/lxe/sektktf/gg/GeertzTexts/Empowering_Aristotle.htm|title=Empowering Aristotle|journal=Science|volume=293|year=2001|issue=5527 |page=53|doi=10.1126/science.1062054 |s2cid=144219739 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110531195118/http://www.iwp.uni-linz.ac.at/lxe/sektktf/gg/GeertzTexts/Empowering_Aristotle.htm |archive-date=2011-05-31 |url-access=subscription}}
{{cite book|author-link=Martin Heidegger|first=Martin|last=Heidegger|title=Plato's Sophist|location=Bloomington|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1997}}
{{cite book | last=Hughes | first=Gerard J. | title=Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Aristotle on Ethics | publisher=Psychology Press | publication-place=London | year=2001 | isbn=0-415-22187-0}}
{{cite journal|author-link=Bruce Krajewski|first=Bruce|last=Krajewski|url=https://revista.classica.org.br/classica/article/view/166|url-access=|title=The dark side of phrónēsis: revisiting the political incompetence of philosophy|journal=Classica|year=2011|volume=24|number=1/2|pages=7–21|doi=10.14195/2176-6436_24_1 }}
{{cite book | author-link=Alasdair MacIntyre|last=MacIntyre | first=Alasdair C. | title=After virtue: a study in moral theory | publisher=Duckworth | publication-place=London | year=2000 | isbn=0-7156-1663-3}}
{{cite book|author-link=William McNeill (philosopher)|first=William|last=McNeill|title=The Glance of the Eye: Heidegger, Aristotle, and the Ends of Theory|location=Albany|publisher=State University of New York Press|year=1999}}
{{cite book|first1=Ikujiro|last1=Nonaka|first2=Ryoko|last2=Toyama|first3=Toru|last3=Hirata|title=Managing Flow: A Process Theory of the Knowledge-Based Firm|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|year=2008}}
{{cite book | editor-link=Amélie Oksenberg Rorty|editor-last=Rorty | editor-first=Amélie | title=Essays on Aristotle's Ethics | publisher=Univ. of California Press | year=1980 | isbn=0-520-04041-4}}
{{cite journal|author-link=Richard Sorabji|first=Richard|last=Sorabji|title=Aristotle on the Role of Intellect in Virtue|journal=Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society|volume=74|year=1973–1974|pages=107–129|doi=10.1093/aristotelian/74.1.107 |postscript=. Reprinted in Rorty.}}
{{cite journal|author-link=David Wiggins|first=David|last=Wiggins|title=Deliberation and Practical Reason|journal=Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society|volume=76|year=1975–1976|pages=29–51|doi=10.1093/aristotelian/76.1.29 |postscript=. Reprinted in Rorty.}}