Julia Savage HON321AG

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The Power of Prudence

Prudence is difficult to pin down to a single definition due to its translations shifting over time. Generally, prudence is the wisdom to make decisions that are practical and will lead to the best outcome. It is the use of reason to weigh the consequences of actions based on prior knowledge. Education and experiences are important in cultivating prudence, as more intelligence allows for deeper thought about decisions and smarter choices.

Exemplars of this virtue are cautious and realistic. They weigh choices and use practical sense and knowledge. Ham Sok Hon is an example of prudence. As explained on the ForwardIntoMemory webpage, "Ham’s education at Osan, and particularly the lessons provided by mentor Yu Young Mo (유영모), provided Ham with important ideas which were foundational to his distinct pacifist, cosmopolitan and egalitarian perspective." Ham combined his passions and philosophy with a strong education in order to make decisions regarding his Korean activism.

Prudence helps people satisfy most of their core needs. Intention, thought, and knowledge are important ingredients in achieving most goals. If we look, for example, at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, every need is achieved through a series of decisions. Safety and basic needs require an understanding of what will fulfill the needs and how to achieve them. Each further level requires more knowledge and experiences to be carried out.

In the modern day, prudence exists mostly in two spheres. Financial prudence is considered important in running a business and staying afloat under capitalism. Also, prudence is a strong principle in Catholicism. Catholic people consider prudence as "practical wisdom that empowers one to be good and to act well in daily affairs, both ordinary and extraordinary." I would "enter the forest" of prudence with its inclusion in religion, as many people were extremely devoted to their faith and took on the virtue in every aspect of their lives. Many following accounts of prudence can be traced back to religion.

Prudence: The Unsexy Virtue — theYoungCatholicWoman

Emma Restuccia Why we need to make it desirable again

In today’s imagination prudence is mainly associated with careful, considered behavior (for example, driving a car slowly) or with a tendenc

“The prudent man looks where he is going.” – Proverbs 14:15 As we continue with the examination of virtues, our goal is to understand that

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I have always looked at ethics from the consequentialist perspective. Like the quote from Aristotle above, I always judged actions based on how they affected other people. The aretaic view is different, though. The focus is on individuals and actions are only judged based on what kind of person would do them. Instead of saying, for instance, that robbing someone is inherently bad, one would instead say that robbing someone is bad when a virtuous person would not do so. This trail of thought is interesting because it leaves more space for the "what if" scenarios; all actions aren't good or bad, the judgement of the action comes from the intention and values of the actor.

As with most philosophy, aretaic beliefs must shift to fit the society that we are studying. The definition of a virtuous person is not universal just as the definition of a good or bad action is not universal. A decision as to whether a person is virtuous or not involves balancing excess and deficiency of certain traits, but then the definition of excess and deficiency must be decided. An extremely honest person may be considered a virtuous one in some cultures and a rude one in others. There is an interesting connection here between Philosophy and Sociology because somehow these cultures coexist and mix even with different values.

Oddly enough, any time I discuss whether actions are inherently good or whether intentions matter more, I think of an episode of Friends. In the episode, Phoebe and Joey debate whether any action can be selfless. Phoebe keeps trying to do things that are good for other people but she does not enjoy, and Joey continues to bring up that she gains some good feeling from doing those kind things, so they are not selfless. They are thinking through the lens of consequentialism, but if we reframe the discussion to fit an aretaic view, the paradox is somewhat excluded. Since Phoebe's intentions were not to make herself feel good, her actions were selfless; the outcome does not matter as much as the motivation and the type of person who would do such actions. Obviously, this is a simplified version of human events, but it has helped me wrap my mind around the different philosophical ways to judge the good and bad of our world.

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Positive Psychology and Positive History

Like Positive History, Positive Psychology is a relatively new topic. Dr. Martin Seligman, the founder of Positive Psychology, explained that he devoted most of his career to studying misery before he realized there had to be something "better than zero." Before this, psychology was studied similarly to history; the focus was on studying and learning to avoid atrocity. Positive Psychology and Positive History and revolutions of thought within their respective disciplines.

One thing that struck me about Positive Psychology was the reaction Dr. Seligman said he received. People acted like the findings were obvious and known previously, yet he was presenting evidence and tests that challenged some ideas of the general public. The discussion of money's relation to happiness is specifically interesting because it is like proof of the saying "money can't buy happiness," but it qualifies the statement as well. Money does actually seem to buy happiness for people struggling with poverty, yet it does not continue to increase happiness after people's needs are met. Positive Psychology gives some insight into the idea that reframing how we study something can open up a new wealth of information.

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The people pictured here are the leaders of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea which was officially established in 1919. The Korean independence movement included a Declaration of Independence, a Constitution, and a democratic republican government broken into the same three branches as the United States government. Prior to the official independence movement, Japan had been forcing Koreans to assimilate to Japanese culture in an attempt to wipe out Korean culture.

The Korean Cultural Center New York has published a brief yet informative summary of Korean history that has helped me to organize my thoughts and fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge.