Yes, knowledge is useless without action



INTELECTUAL VIRTUES

Yes, knowledge is useless without action. But action without the light of reason is futile. Knowledge and action, for them to be effective, must complement one another. The present modern way of living testifies to this position. If before, those who work hard are the ones who succeed in life, today hard work is not enough; hard work must be guided by good training and education.

The first five books of the Nicomachean Ethics mostly have been dealing with the moral virtues, which are formed and honed through practice and habit, and have yet to open the discussion on the intellectual virtues in Book VI. It is in Book VI that the right principles of action in choosing the mean for the moral virtues are examined through one’s knowledge of the intellectual virtues.

According to Aristotle, it is through reason that our rational faculties achieve truth. And not just through mere reason but through “right” reason. Right reason is needed in our coming up with the mean of our actions. Now the question is how will we know the standard of this right reason? We could know this by examining the intellectual virtues.

The intellectual virtues come up with right reason for us to arrive at the truths of our actions. Knowledge is useless without action, but right reason is that which bears the truth which leads us towards the good. Just as knowledge is intrinsically important to the value of an action so are the intellectual virtues to the moral virtues.

I will no longer analyze all the kinds of intellectual virtues for I firmly agree with the descriptions posited by Aristotle. But, nonetheless, I would like to highlight few important thought elements in his analysis of the intellectual virtues.

I agree with the move of Aristotle in giving emphasis on the calculative rational faculty of the soul since it would be self-defeating for him to dwell more or even of the same degree on the contemplative faculty of the rational part of the soul. It would be self-defeating because ethics is primarily concerned with the practical and non-eternal matters of living. So in this sense, there will be no doubt that the intellectual virtues must dwell more on those which deals with the practical matters of our living. These important intellectual virtues would include prudence and wisdom which guides us in the correct manner of action through rational deliberation and choice necessary to moral virtues.

Among the intellectual virtues, prudence is that which strikes me most. Prudence is the intellectual virtue which is for me serves as the link between the two virtues. Not just some invisible connection but a hard wire connecting the two forms of virtues. Were it not for it being learnt through instruction instead of being practiced, prudence should have properly been a moral virtue. Prudence is very essential for the moral virtues in the sense that it is deeming impossible to properly execute the moral virtues without prudence or practical wisdom. Having a good heart is not enough for one to be fully virtuous. Having the intellectual virtue of practical wisdom as well as good disposition is indispensable in living a good moral life. But prudence without moral virtues is for me impossible for prudence necessarily requires virtuous embodiment of the right moral judgement. Prudence without the moral virtues may be mere cleverness as Aristotle may have pointed out. Being clever is hard but being a good clever is harder for it involves not merely correct deliberations but good deliberations. Correct deliberations are bigger in scope so it is easier to do it than the narrower good deliberations.

Aristotle’s discussion of good deliberations exposes his analytic and logical mind to the point of making logic out of action. A good deliberation for him is a right conclusion from premises; coming to it in the right manner and right time. That is a hard thing to do. I think this way of analyzing our actions is the best means in arriving at our goals. Our life should be a dialectic and a syllogism which would eventually end-up in happiness.

There is a great difference between a schooled person and an educated person. Most of the time, we take them interchangeably. But for me, Aristotle’s conception of an intellectually virtuous man is that of an educated man. A schooled person may be academically competent but he lacks depth in character. An educated man is that who incorporates in himself the principles he have learned from his studies. In other words, his acquired knowledge becomes his second nature. In this way we could say that not all schooled persons are educated persons but all educated persons are schooled persons. Consider for instance the common government officials we have who are trained in high standard universities who eventually become one of the many corrupt leaders of our society. This is a very rampant and even an accepted social reality we have here in our society. Aristotle would have said “what we need are not schooled or learned officials, but those who are educated, those who practice and enact what they know.”

To recapitulate therefore, one thing stands out to be very important in his discussion of the intellectual virtues: that right knowledge and moral action must always go hand in hand in order to have a truly virtuous act. As simple as that.

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Michael Jhon M. Tamayao 14 January 2006

Nicomachean Ethics Prof. Elmitra Dela Cruz, Ph.D.

Reaction Paper VI

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