Prudence: Practical Wisdom

Prudence is a form of wisdom. The ancients distinguished between two kinds of wisdom: speculative wisdom (sophia), related to the world of abstract ideas, and practical wisdom (prudentia), related to the concrete world of particular actions. As Tom pursues the story’s heroine, his beloved Sophia (wisdom), he must also pursue and acquire prudence, or applied wisdom. Wisdom is so rare today that distinguishing between speculative and practical wisdom seems overly nuanced.

But we’ve all heard advice or a principle that seems right—yet is impossible to apply to a particular situation. One…