Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
REGION V
Schools Division of Sorsogon
Bulan National High School

INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

1ST Semester: Quarter 2

Learning Activity Sheet No. 1
PRUDENCE IN CHOICES
Name of Student: _______________________________ Date: ___________
Grade, Strand & Section: _______________________

I. LEARNING COMPETENCIES FROM MELCs

At the end of this lesson, learners are expected to:
 Evaluate and exercise prudence in choices. (PPT11/12IIa-5.2)
 Practice prudence at home, in school, in community and in person. .

II. OVERVIEW
ACT- is an action to do something, usually done intentionally or voluntarily with a purpose. Involuntary Act, on the other hand, is without the
conscious choice.
FREEDOM- is the power to act, speak, or think as one wants without a hindrance or restrain. It is also an exemption or liberation from the control of
some person, or some arbitrary power, liberty, and independence.
PRUDENCE- is the ability to choose decision by avoiding risks or harm, or an act of careful decision.
RISK- is the possibility that something bad may happen or it implies future uncertainty about deviation from expected outcome.
CONSEQUENCES- is the effect, result, or outcome of something that result from a given choice or decision.
DECISION- is an action or process of deciding something, a final judgement.
EVALUATE AND EXERCISE PRUDENCE IN CHOICES
According to ST. THOMAS DE AQUINAS, as an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, Catholic priest, and
Doctor of the Church. An immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of
scholasticism, he is also known within the latter as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor Communis.

(ST. THOMAS DE AQUINAS) THE CARDINAL VIRTUES are as follows:

PRUDENCE St. Thomas Aquinas ranked prudence as the first cardinal virtue, because it is concerned with the
intellect. Aristotle defined prudence as recta ratio agibilium, "right reason applied to practice." It is the virtue that allows us to judge
correctly what is right and what is wrong in any given situation. When we mistake the evil for the good, we are not exercising
prudence—in fact, we are showing our lack of it. Because it is so easy to fall into error, prudence requires us to seek the counsel of
others, particularly those we know to be sound judges of morality. Disregarding the advice or warnings of others whose judgment does
not coincide with ours is a sign of imprudence.
JUSTICE, according to Saint Thomas, is the second cardinal virtue, because it is concerned with the will. As Fr. John A. Hardon
notes in his Modern Catholic Dictionary, it is "the constant and permanent determination to give everyone his or her rightful due." We
say that "justice is blind," because it should not matter what we think of a particular person. If we owe him a debt, we must repay
exactly what we owe. Justice is connected to the idea of rights. While we often use justice in a negative sense ("He got what he
deserved"), justice in its proper sense is positive. Injustice occurs when we as individuals or by law deprive someone of that which he
is owed. Legal rights can never outweigh natural ones. Fortitude The third cardinal virtue, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, is
fortitude. While this virtue is commonly called courage, it is different from what much of what we think of as courage today. Fortitude
allows us to overcome fear and to remain steady in our will in the face of obstacles, but it is always reasoned and reasonable; the
person exercising fortitude does not seek danger for danger's sake. Prudence and justice are the virtues through which we decide what
needs to be done; fortitude gives us the strength to do it.
FORTITUDE is the only one of the cardinal virtues that is also a gift of the Holy Spirit, allowing us to rise above our natural fears in
defence of the Christian faith.
TEMPERANCE, Saint Thomas declared, is the fourth and final cardinal virtue. While fortitude is concerned with the restraint of fear
so that we can act, temperance is the restraint of our desires or passions. Food, drink, and sex are all necessary for our survival,
individually and as a species; yet a disordered desire for any of these goods can have disastrous consequences, physical and moral.
Temperance is the virtue that attempts to keep us from excess, and, as such, requires the balancing of legitimate goods against our
inordinate desire for them. Our legitimate use of such goods may be different at different times; temperance is the "golden mean" that
helps us determines how far we can act on our desires.
"A prudent man is one who sees as it were from afar, for his sight is keen, and he foresees the event of uncertainties." Now sight belongs not to the
appetitive but to the cognitive faculty. Wherefore it is manifest that prudence belongs directly to the cognitive, and not to the sensitive
faculty, because by the latter we know nothing but what is within reach and offers itself to the senses: while to obtain knowledge of the
future from knowledge of the present or past, which pertains to prudence, belongs properly to the reason, because this is done by a
process of comparison. It follows therefore that prudence, properly speaking, is in the reason.
For Aristotle, prudence or practical wisdom is a virtue of thought that is practical rather than theoretical and deliberative rather than intuitive. The prudent
person is the only one who is truly just, courageous and temperate, and the good person is truly good only if he is prudent. ...
The worth of prudence consists not in thought merely, but in its application to action, which is the end of the practical reason. Wherefore if any defect
occur in this, it is most contrary to prudence, since, the end being of most import in everything, it follows that a defect which touches the end is the
worst of all. Hence the Philosopher goes on to say (Ethic. vi, 5) that prudence is "something more than a merely rational habit," such as art is, since,
as stated above (I-II:57:4) it includes application to action, which application is an act of the will.
THE VIRTUE OF PRUDENCE
1. Prudence is the knowledge of how to act, how to conduct one's life rightly. St. Augustine says that prudence is "the knowledge of what to seek and
what to avoid. Prudence belongs to the knowing faculty of the soul, rather than to the appetitive faculty; that is, it belongs to the intellect rather than
to the will. Since intellect(as the thinking mind that enlightens the will for its choice) is called reason, prudence, properly speaking, is in reason as in
its proper subject.
2. Prudence is no mere knowledge of what things are (of what is so), but of how to act (of what to do). Hence, prudence belongs to the practical
intellect or reason, not to the speculative intellect.
3. Prudence is not just a general grasp or understanding of right procedure. It serves a man in the concrete and individual situations that make up his
daily life.
4. Prudence is one of the cardinal virtues. While, as we have seen, it is, strictly speaking, in the intellect, it is a guide to right action on the part of the
will, and hence it shares the nature of a moral virtue, that is, a will-virtue. 5. Although prudence suffuses the other moral virtues, itis a distinct and
special virtue on its own account.
6. Prudence does not set up the end and purpose of the moral virtues, but regulates the means by which these virtues operate to their determinate
ends. It does not indicate what the moral virtues are to do, but shows them the right way to do it.
7. Prudence discerns the mean or measure of moral virtues, and sees how their action can be reasonable and not marred either by excess or
deficiency. For prudence is the knowledge of how things ought to be done.
8. And prudence, as Aristotle says (Ethic. vi), gives orders. Prudence commands. It does not, indeed, take over the work of the will. It shows with
certitude and authority how the will ought to choose. And, to a reasonable will, this amounts to a command. This function of commanding is really
the chief act of prudence.
9. Prudence gives her commands in no aloof, detached fashion. Prudence is ever careful, watchful, and solicitous that a person's conduct be right.
10. Prudence is not only a private virtue, looking solely to the individual good conduct of a person; it also serves the common good. St. Paul (I Cor.
10:33) indicates the social function of prudence when he says: "Not seeking that which is profitable to myself, but to many, that they may be saved."
11. Indeed, prudence is of different species according as it serves a person in his personal conduct or serves the good of the home (domestic
prudence), or the good of the commonwealth (political prudence).
12. Political prudence is itself of two kinds, for it must be in the rulers and legislators on one hand, and in the citizen son the other hand. Aristotle
(Ethic. vi) says that prudence is like a master craft in rulers, and like a handicraft in those who are ruled.
13. True prudence, as a virtue, is only in the good. Serious sin casts out prudence. A sinful person in his evil life may exercise a kind of craftiness that
has the outer look of prudence, but it is not the genuine article.
14. A person in the state of grace has prudence, for he has charity, and charity cannot exist without prudence. Prudence suffuses all virtues; it is a
kind of bond that links them together, and it is necessary to them all.
15. Prudence is a natural virtue, too. We have been speaking chiefly of supernatural prudence, but we must notice that there is a natural prudence
also. This natural prudence is called natural, not because it belongs necessarily to human nature, but because it can be acquired by the powers of
human nature. It is acquired by being taught, or by learning through experience, or in both ways.
16. Prudence is not forgotten. Forgetfulness may, indeed, hinder prudent action, but the virtue itself is not lost through forgetting. These are the
things that we should remember in dealing with prudence. I hope that you will be able to learn new things in exercising prudence in making choices
in life.
Practical wisdom, or prudence (phronesis), is one of the five faculties by which people can grasp the truth.
Aristotle covered it in section three of this book, where he said that it is a virtue of the deliberative part of the
rational part of the soul that manifests as the ability to deliberate about what actions would be beneficial and
expedient in leading a life of virtue and eudaimonia. Here (and in the trailing paragraphs of section seven,
which some people fold into this section), he has a few more things to say about it:
Practical wisdom is concerned with down-to-earth, human things, and things that it makes sense to deliberate
about — that is, things that have a purpose that human action can ARISTOTLE influence (there’s
no reason, for instance, to deliberate about whether to grow old or not
III. ACTIVITIES
Activity 1: Coping with the “NEW NORMAL” by applying the virtue of prudence.
DIRECTIONS: List down 5 activities in column 1 that enable you to do during the Pandemic and give your reason/s in the column 2.
ACTIVITIES REASON
Example: Wearing of face mask and face shield. To protect ourselves from acquiring the virus and at the same time prevent us as
from the vector of transmitting the disease.
1-5 1-5

Activity 2: CHOOSING A DECISION

DIRECTIONS: Below are the different scenarios, decide and choose a decision in exercising prudence in choices. Kindly explain your
answer.
1. At Home
You and your older brother have dis-agreement about washing the dishes after dinner. He says that you must wash the dishes because you are
younger and must follow him; but you disagree because your mother has already set a schedule.
• I will just follow my brother considering that I am younger.
• My mother knows best that is why I will follow what is scheduled.
explain your answer:

2. In school
The modality that you have chosen is online class. Normally, there are series of examinations designed in the curriculum assessing your learning.
• You are provided with modules and other materials as sources of possible answers to save time and less effort.
• Focus yourself in answering the questions by reflecting what you have reviewed and understood from the previous topics.
explain your answer:

3. In your community (barangay)

Being a minor, you are not permitted to go outside in accordance with the proper health and safety protocols.
• I insist to go outside as a social being to mingle with my friends so that I am continuously bound to our friendship goal.
• “The law may be harsh but it is the law”, that I stay at home for my health and safety and other people in the community in support to the programs
on flattening the curve of COVID-19.
explain your answer:

4. In Person Staying at home is turning to be bore some while stocking self-activities.

Avoiding the situation, therefore, I have to make movements and thinking some activities that are worthwhile and beneficial.
• Doing physical exercise, attending house chores and eating healthy foods in order to boost health condition and stay responsible being.
• Staying all day in my room and neglecting the chores while attending to my personal needs; because this is the time that I need to be alone and have
rest.
explain your answer:

IV. RUBRIC for activity 1 and 2

POINTS DESCRIPTION
5 Understanding towards the given statement is clear, accurate and complete.
4 Understanding towards given statement is evident, but the required support and details are in-complete.
3 Has limited understanding towards given statement, some of the supports and examples are in-complete.
1 Lack of understanding towards the given statement and answers are in-complete.

V. ANSWER KEY
Activity 1, and 2: Answers may vary

VI. REFERENCES
Dennis s. Cereno, et.al., Quarter 2- Module 1: Prudence in Choices, Introduction to Philosophy of the Human Person, Department
of Education, Regional Office V, (Regional Center Site, Rawis, Legaspi City 4500.)

Prepared by:

SALVACION G. GRACILLA
Subject Teacher
Reviewed by:

JOSE BRANDON G. LUZURIAGA/ANANIAS G. GURAY HENDRISSA D. SICAD

Subject Group Heads Master Teacher I

Recommending Approval:

MARIVIC A. ANONUEVO
ASP II – SHS Academics

Approved:

SALVE E. FERRERAS
Principal III

Noted by:

LEONISA M. ENOLVA
OIC- PSDS Bulan II