3. Prudence |
First Part
Did you know that the youth is imprudent? It is me, your computer, telling you. But I want to tell you with prudence. My intention is not to bother you, but to invite you to examine whether or not I am right, in order for you after to learn as a consequence. You provide me with my reasons behind this affirmation, seeing that you are impetuous, thoughtless, unconscious, reckless, extreme, spontaneous, fickle, and precipitated. Can you admit to this? Do not tell me that you cannot.
Therefore, a person acting on these impulses must usually commit many imprudences.
With this I do not intend to limit in the least bit your right to be young. My wish is to help you become prudent even if you are young, as well as help you learn how to balance between extremes.
I say “between extremes”, because every virtue has an exact middle point between not reaching it and passing it. If one does not reach this precise point, or passes it, virtue stops being virtue. This is precisely what prudence encompasses: staying on the exact middle balance. That is why prudence is also known as the “regulator of other virtues”.
Can we attempt to see what implies being prudent?
A person who is prudent is someone who, at work and in relations with others, is informed through straightforward and genuine criteria about what should be done; a prudent person reflects before taking a decision on the favorable and unfavorable consequences of one’s actions in relation to others, and then act or not depending on what was best to decide.
A prudent person is someone that before doing something, and keeping in mind the straightforward and genuine criteria collected, measures the consequences that can follow the action taken, and then it is when they decide or not, to act in one way or another.