“The right measure [due proportion] is at the head of all.” —Ancient Greek poet Pindar The Greek hated a thing overdone, agaudy ornament, a proud title, a fulsome compliment, a high-flown speech, a wordy peroration.
The golden mean is God’s delight:
Extremesare hateful to his sight. Hold by the mean,andglorify
Noranarchy, nor slavery — Aeschylus
The dictionary meaning of prudence is discretion, cautiousness, care, forethought or good sense. Prudent individuals avoid rashness and recklessness and tend to be wary of needless risk taking. They tend to be conventional and stick to the well trodden path. They may not be adventurous, and instead seek safety and comfort. Prudence is an inappropriate basis of morality. Early Christianity called for purity of heart and rejected prudence, fear and desire for afterlife in paradise as grounds for piety or virtue. Mere calculating prudence or a desire for social conformity should not be the basis of morality. A prudent individual may simply observe the external forms of religion without putting his heart into it.
Aristotle, however, considered prudence as eminently desirable practical wisdom. It is a habit of intellectual perception that enables the virtuous man to discover the golden mean of moral virtue. For Aristotle, virtue is a mean between two other qualities which represent its two extremes – for example courage is a golden mean between timidity and rashness. Aristotle believed that no moral virtue comes into play without prudence. In any given situation, it is the judgement of the prudent manthat hitsupon the mean of virtue.For example, without prudence, fortitude becomesrashness, justicebecomesvindictiveness, clemencybecomesweaknessandreligionbecomes superstition.
Aristotle regarded prudence as a skill which enables one to identify virtue and pursue it. The golden mean has to be defined by reason, according to the particular circumstances of each case. However, the actual pursuit or choice of right ends depends on the strength of one’s moral will. Prudence identifies and shows the route for only virtuous actions. If the ends are impure, prudence will have nothing to do with them. In pursuing dubious ends, people are guided by other qualities like shrewdness, sagacity or cunning.
Aristotle believed that virtuous conduct presupposes prudence. For prudence is the practical wisdomwhichenablesone to steerbetweenthetwo extremes within whichliesvirtue. To citeanother example, in the absence of prudence in a judge, justice may end up in undue severity or in undue leniency. Since virtue for Aristotle is a mean, he values prudence as a method of discovering and pursuing virtue.
Prudence in the sense of moderation and practical wisdom is a highly desirable virtue in civil servants. In modern administrative contexts, prudence can be seen as consisting in avoiding extreme positions,andadopting moderatecourses of action.Peopleusuallydislikeone sided or unduly harsh actions. Policies which avoid extremes are likely to appeal to the majority of people. Views based on consensus are likely to find wide acceptance.