True prudence People usually contain that being prudent is avoiding risk and becoming timid when they face every decision. In the How the Modern World Made Cowards of Us, the author Arthur C. Brooks uses three phrases to define the impression of prudence: “ faintheartedness, caution and a general bias against action.” The current society defines people who break the routine as being imprudent. However, being prudent is helpful for making decision. Real prudence should encourage people to do what they want and bravely to take risks in process of pursuing dream. It is like a lighthouse which leads the right direction for people. Because of true prudence, people are becoming adventurous when they face the every challenges and decisions …show more content…
According to Epicurus’s thought from Great traditions in ethics, prudent people should know that they themselves, rather than destiny, control the factors that decide their happiness and they have the power to turn chance occurrences to good account. (43) In other words, prudent people should not let external factors disturb their lives and they are able to conquer troubles and try to direct every decision into a satisfying result. Arthur contents that prudence signify righteous decision making that is rooted in acuity and practical wisdom. For instance, if a prudent person faces a dilemma, as Arthur said, he would list all the possible results and figure out his own object. Regardless of the potential failure, he would carry out his plan. It is a precise and meticulous thinking process. Epicurus confirms that, “ the wise decision rather than the fortunate outcome is the prudent individual’s choice.” (43) As a prudent person, he knows what he will sacrifice in possible choice, but he will not let others or the world make decision for him. People who own true prudence are deliberated but not coward, are reasonable but not irresolute. Just like Arthur mentioned in the How the Modern World Made Cowards of Us, “true prudence means eschewing safety and familiarity in favor of entrepreneurial …show more content…
After people realize their dream, they can get real pleasures in life. According to Great traditions in ethics, Epictetus advocates the life of self-control. (55) However, he also contains that it belongs to a wise man to resist pleasure; and to a fool to be enslaved by it. He thinks no event is terrible when viewed by the disciplined mind. (56) Epictetus’s thinking contradicts Epicurus’s idea. Epicurus maintain that mot all the pleasure is immoral, and all the troubles and failures in the way of pursuing dream are not painful. A real prudent person has the ability to distinguish what the true pleasures exists in life and what the false indulgence is. Self-control and self- discipline are crucial elements for being prudent, but being self-control should also be able to enjoy the real pleasure existing in life. Being prudent does not means eliminating all the pleasure, and it more wisely to make every
The most vital part that has developed mankind is risk taking. Indeed, taking risks means that losses are almost inevitable. Yet, the very possibility of gaining from the result of risk taking means that risks are necessary. In fact, while taking risks may cause significant losses, it is the very possibility of gain that has made risk taking so essential to the development of humanity.
prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance are vital facets in the decision-making process. Prudence affects moral judgment, sensitivity, and intention. It is concerned with the knowledge and practical wisdom. Justice, on the other hand, refers to the permanent attitude to perform what is fair. Another virtue; temperance refers to the desire to pursue what is just while avoiding dangerous undertakings. The fortitude virtue then controls the passions of humans like despair, fear, anger, audacity, and hope. All these elements affect both individual and organizational factors of ethical decision-making (Cabello-Medina,
In other words, self-interest is a person’s pleasure, and chasing self-interest as a kind of happiness is comprehensible and somehow necessary, as Fr. Fagothey mentioned, “Man is free in the choice of concrete objects by whose possession he hopes to obtain happiness.” (Fagothey, 47) He also wrote, “We naturally desire health, wealth, knowledge, and other goods; but we cannot always obtain them.” (Fagothey, 56) Gaining all desire is necessary for people rather than simply survive. In this case, there is nothing wrong with reaching a personal goal and dreaming without impeding others, because as Stoic scholar declared, “What people constantly, are things that are not within their control.” (Hospers, 53) Therefore, trying to accomplish desire, promoting self is the only way to reach. For example, if one person wants to be wise, go to school and study hard, finally they gain the knowledge, which in other way finish his personal interest. Without promoting him/herself, it is impossible to reach this goal. Promptly, if everyone tries their best to capture the best by taking this kind of active progress into the society, as each one make little progress; it actually has huge influence to the society.
Through books one to three in Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle distinguishes between pain and happiness, clarifying the endless war that men face in the path of these two extremes. Man’s quest for pleasure is considered by the self-conscious and rational Aristotle; a viewpoint traditionally refuted in contemporary, secular environments.
Some people make choices without thinking. They act on impulse. For example, the cashier, Sammy, in the story made a hasty decision. He quit his job because he did not like the way his boss dealt with the girls. After he walked out he realized that quitting wasn’t such a good idea. He said, “My stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.”(32) In my own life, I found that you should never make hasty decisions. When I was younger, I didn’t
This aphorism really captures the uncertainty of the future, and how betting on the future is a big risk. It is supported with sayings such as “Live life to the fullest,” and “Life is short.” There are many reasons that the most dangerous risk of all is the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.
Our ancient literature has always prescribed to have control over our internal desires – sexual, anger, jealousy, pride and wants. In spite of it been percolating for centuries to enlighten good, for its trueness, people willingly surrendered themselves fully to these by large.
Thus, when virtues involves in some personal pain, the idea of purpose or need become very important as it deeply depends on self-control. Self-control becomes extremely important when virtues entails stepping out from person’s comfort zone, here you can distinct a virtuous person from others. A virtuous person can control himself and abide to rules and morals whatsoever, while people with no self-control but claiming being virtuous might forget their morals and values in some situations. In conclusion, I argue that there is a connection between virtues and happiness, however I have showed some situations that virtues may lead to unhappiness or confusion.
By doing the Wise Choice Process, I learned that there is a choice with everything and I’m the one who controls where I go. I could choose to fail or to succeed. Although, it isn’t that easy to just
The role of practical wisdom is to be able to pre-determine which action will ensure Eudaimonia or happiness in different situations. In the words of Aristotle he explains, “Virtue makes the goal right, practical wisdom the things leading to it”. It is important to exhibit the virtue of practical wisdom because one must have the skill to make conscientious decisions, to benefit one. To practice practical wisdom, one must obtain two kinds of virtues, intellectual and moral. In conclusion, practical...
Life is full of decisions; everyday people make numerous decisions. From the moment that someone wakes up in the morning he or she are faced with decisions. What will he wear, what is he going to eat for breakfast, or does he even want to get out of bed. People make so many decisions every day. These decisions have many effects that determine whether they are good decisions or not. There are many different reasons that people make the choices that they do. It is hard to understand all that goes into making decisions. The decisions that a people make are based on many different factors.
Aristotle feels we have a rational capacity and the exercising of this capacity is the perfecting of our natures as human beings. For this reason, pleasure alone cannot establish human happiness, for pleasure is what animals seek and human beings have higher capacities than animals. The goal is to express our desires in ways that are appropriate to our natures as rational animals. Aristotle states that the most important factor in the effort to achieve happiness is to have a good moral character, what he calls complete virtue. In order to achieve the life of complete virtue, we need to make the right choices, and this involves keeping our eye on the future, on the ultimate result we want for our lives as a whole. We will not achieve happiness simply by enjoying the pleasures of the moment. We must live righteous and include behaviors in our life that help us do what is right and avoid what is wrong. It is not enough to think about doing the right thing, or even intend to do the right thing, we have to actually do it. Happiness can occupy the place of the chief good for which humanity should aim. To be an ultimate end, an act must be independent of any outside help in satisfying one’s needs and final, that which is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else and it must be
Not every event has a guaranteed outcome- sometimes, one has to take a gamble in the game of life. There are some, however, who would prefer to travel within the safe, confined lane of actions with a definite outcome. Deciding whether or not to take risks in life can be tricky, but as Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.” This quote means that people should take risks in their endeavors, because life is precisely about trying new things and experiences. As the quote explains, taking risks in life is a vital step to success, fulfillment, and gaining more out of experiences.
However, we can wonder if the pleasures that derive from necessary natural desires are what actually brings us happiness, since having a family, friends, a good job and doing fun things seem to bring the most joy in life. Plato’s ideas on life are even more radical, since he claims that we should completely take difference from our bodily needs. Therefore it seems that we should only do what is necessary for us to stay a life and solely focus on the mind. Although both ways of dealing with (bodily)pleasure are quite radical and almost impossible to achieve, it does questions if current perceptions of ‘living the good life’ actually leads to what we are trying to achieve, which is commonly described as
Moral ethics is the belief that all human beings are born to know right from wrong. We come into this world as good people, but the temptations and challenges in life influence our mind set to as it will. Every person on Earth chooses if they’re to follow through with their life of good or go down the path of bad. “A person’s moral ethics” (unknown.)