Nor again does Practical Wisdom consist in a knowledge of general
principles only, but it is necessary that one should know also the
particular details, because it is apt to act, and action is concerned
with details: for which reason sometimes men who have not much
knowledge are more practical than others who have; among others, they
who derive all they know from actual experience: suppose a man to know,
for instance, that light meats are easy of digestion and wholesome, but
not what kinds of meat are light, he will not produce a healthy state;
that man will have a much better chance of doing so, who knows that the
flesh of birds is light and wholesome. Since then Practical Wisdom is
apt to act, one ought to have both kinds of knowledge, or, if only one,
the knowledge of details rather than of Principles. So there will be in
respect of Practical Wisdom the distinction of supreme and
subordinate.[26]
Further: πολιτικὴ and Practical Wisdom are the same mental state, but
the point of view is not the same.
Of Practical Wisdom exerted upon a community that which I would call
the Supreme is the faculty of Legislation; the subordinate, which is
concerned with the details, generally has the common name πολιτικὴ, and
its functions are Action and Deliberation (for the particular enactment
is a matter of action, being the ultimate issue of this branch of
Practical Wisdom, and therefore people commonly say, that these men
alone are really engaged in government, because they alone act, filling
the same place relatively to legislators, that workmen do to a
master).[27]
Again, that is thought to be Practical Wisdom in the most proper sense
which has for its object the interest of the Individual: and this
usually appropriates the common name: the others are called
respectively Domestic Management, Legislation, Executive Government
divided into two branches, Deliberative and Judicial.[28] Now of
course, knowledge for one’s self is one kind of knowledge, but it
admits of many shades of difference: and it is a common notion that the
man who knows and busies himself about his own concerns merely is the
man of Practical Wisdom, while they who extend their solicitude to
society at large are considered meddlesome.
Euripides has thus embodied this sentiment; “How,” says one of his
Characters, “How foolish am I, who whereas I might have shared equally,
idly numbered among the multitude of the army *** for them that are
busy and meddlesome [Jove hates],” because the generality of mankind
seek their own good and hold that this is their proper business. It is
then from this opinion that the notion has arisen that such men are the
Practically-Wise. And yet it is just possible that the good of the
individual cannot be secured independently of connection with a family
or a community. And again, how a man should manage his own affairs is
sometimes not quite plain, and must be made a matter of enquiry.[29]