Prudence*
Prudence is correct knowledge of things to be done or avoided. Prudence resides in the intellect and is natural, that is, acquired by our own acts but also supernatural, infused with sanctifying grace.
As an act of virtue, prudence requires three mental actions: taking counsel carefully with ourself and others, judging correctly from the evidence at hand, and directing the rest of our activity based on the norms we have established.
Prudence is one of the four cardinal virtues; the others are justice, temperance, and fortitude. Prudence is first among the cardinal virtues and guides the others by setting rule and measure, applying moral principles to particular cases.
Prudence is also one of the five intellectual virtues.
Justice
Our constant and permanent determination to give everyone his or her rightful due. Justice is a habitual inclination of the will.
The rights due to others are whatever belongs to a person as an individual as distinct from ourself.
A sin against justice requires reparation. We are to compensate for the harm we have inflicted.
The distinction between justice and charity is that justice distinguishes between the person practicing it and his neighbor. Charity treats our neighbor as our brother.
Justice is one of the four cardinal virtues; the others are prudence, temperance, and fortitude.
http://www.secondexodus.com/html/catholicdefinitions
Prudence: A Cardinal Virtue
By Scott P. Richert
One of the Four Cardinal Virtues:
Prudence is one of the four cardinal virtues. Like the other three, it is a virtue that can be practiced by anyone; unlike the theological virtues, the cardinal virtues are not, in themselves, the gifts of God through grace but the outgrowth of habit. However, Christians can grow in the cardinal virtues through sanctifying grace, and thus prudence can take on a supernatural dimension as well as a natural one.
What Prudence Is Not:
Many Catholics think prudence simply refers to the practical application of moral principles. They speak, for instance, of the decision to go to war as a "prudential judgment," suggesting that reasonable people can disagree on the application of moral principles and, therefore, such judgments can be questioned but never absolutely declared wrong. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of prudence, which, as Fr. John A. Hardon notes in his Modern Catholic Dictionary, is "Correct knowledge about things to be done or, more broadly, the knowledge of things that ought to be done and of thing that ought to be avoided."
"Right Reason Applied to Practice":
Aristotle was closer to the truth. As the Catholic Encyclopedia notes, he defined prudence as recta ratio agibilium, "right reason applied to practice." The emphasis on "right" is important. We cannot simply make a decision and then describe it as a "prudential judgment." Prudence requires us to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. Thus, as Father Hardon writes, "It is the intellectual virtue whereby a human being recognizes in any matter at hand what is good and what is evil." If we mistake the evil for the good, we are not exercising prudence—in fact, we are showing our lack of it.
Prudence in Everyday Life:
So how do we know when we're exercising prudence and when we're simply giving in to our own desires? Father Hardon notes three stages of an act of prudence: "to take counsel carefully with oneself and from others"; "to judge correctly on the basis of the evidence at hand"; "to direct the rest of one's activity according to the norms determined after a prudent judgment has been made."
Disregarding the advice or warnings of others whose judgment does not coincide with ours is a sign of imprudence. It is possible that we are right and others wrong; but the opposite may be true, especially if we are in the minority.
Some Final Thoughts on Prudence:
Since prudence can take on a supernatural dimension through the gift of grace, we should carefully evaluate the counsel we receive from others with that in mind. When, for instance, the popes express their judgment on the justice of a particular war, we should value that more highly than the advice of someone who stands to profit monetarily from the war.
And we must always keep in mind that the definition of prudence requires us to judge correctly. If our judgment is proved after the fact to have been incorrect, then we did not make a "prudential judgment" but an imprudent one, for which we may need to make amends.
Justice: A Cardinal Virtue
By Scott P. Richert
One of the Four Cardinal Virtues:
Justice is one of the four cardinal virtues. As such, it is a virtue that can be practiced by anyone, unlike the theological virtues, which are the gifts of God through grace. The cardinal virtues are developed and perfected through habit. While Christians can grow in the cardinal virtues through sanctifying grace, justice, as practiced by humans, can never be supernatural but is always bound by our natural rights and obligations to one another.
The Second of the Cardinal Virtues:
St. Thomas Aquinas ranked justice as the second of the cardinal virtues, behind prudence, but before fortitude and temperance. Prudence is the perfection of the intellect ("right reason applied to practice"), while justice, as Fr. John A. Hardon notes in his Modern Catholic Dictionary, is an "habitual inclination of the will." It is "the constant and permanent determination to give everyone his or her rightful due." While the theological virtue of charity emphasizes our duty to our fellow man because he is our fellow, justice is concerned with what we owe someone else precisely because he is not us.
What Justice Is Not:
Thus charity may rise above justice, to give someone more than he is rightfully due. But justice always requires perfect precision in rendering to each person what he is due. While justice is often used in a negative sense today—"justice was served"; "he was brought to justice"—the focus of the virtue is positive. While lawful authorities may justly punish evildoers, our concern as individuals is with respecting the rights of others, particularly when we owe them a debt or when our actions might restrict their exercise of their rights.
The Relationship Between Justice and Rights:
Justice, then, respects the rights of others, whether those rights are natural (the right to life and limb, the rights that arise because of our natural obligations to family and kin, the most fundamental property rights, the right to worship God and to do what is necessary to save our souls) or legal (contract rights, constitutional rights, civil rights). Should legal rights ever come into conflict with natural rights, however, the latter take precedence, and justice demands that they be respected. Thus, law cannot take away the right of parents to educate their children in the way that is best for the children. Nor can justice allow the granting of legal rights to one person (such as the "right to an abortion") at the expense of the natural rights of another (in that case, the right to life and limb). To do so is to fail "to give everyone his or her rightful due."
PHOTOS: toutlecafe.com, ux.brookdalecc.edu
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