Chapter Ten - Prudence and practical principles

Summary

Virtue makes the goal correct, and prudence makes the things promoting the goal correct. The first part of this affirmation, that virtue makes the goal correct, has generated a great deal of scholarly debate. This passage carries all the heavier weight if one holds that moral virtue alone can make the end right. The aim of this chapter is rather to investigate how the ends of the moral life are known in Aquinas's own mind, and how he understands the goal passage. The chapter shows that for Aquinas, moral virtue provides some knowledge of the ends of the moral life, but outside of a framework provided by self-evident practical principles and moral science such knowledge cannot be adequately articulated. According to Aquinas, moral virtue is therefore an insufficient source of the knowledge to guide the moral life.