The Ethical Dimension of Practical Wisdom
The Ethical Dimension of Practical Wisdom

Summary/Abstract: The paper is a reflection on the role of practical wisdom in ethics. By explaining and trying to understand the essence of practical wisdom, the author has endeavoured to determine whether it can be treated as a central ethical category, and if so, then why. In these analyses, author has referred to the concept of Aristotle, universally acknowledged as the classical one. Characterizing and describing that concept, she tries to answer three questions: 1) What is practical wisdom? 2) What function does it perform in ethics? 3) What is the relationship between practical wisdom and other ethical categories? The article is divided into four parts. Each of them concerns different aspects of the analysis of practical wisdom. As a result, the author has come to several important conclusions: Practical wisdom 1) enables appropriate action, i.e. success in action; 2) refers not only to the means-to-ends relationship, but refers to the end itself; 3) is imperative, because it tells what to do; 4) referring to the unusual situation, it allows to understand that every general principle is limited; 5) it is the intellectual ability to recognize how to achieve happiness.

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