Komplementarność mądrości i roztropności w ludzkim postępowaniu. Ujęcie św. Tomasza z Akwinu

While considering the problem of human dispositions, Thomas Aquinas indicates the special role of disposition in human action. Its unique position is caused by the fact that it is both intellectual and moral virtue. Wisdom, however, is a intellectual virtue, which relies on ability to cognizing the truth, which is not available to the man in indirect cognition. Therefore, wisdom make the human intellect able to its proper operations – reasoning. However, there is no indirect transfer from wisdom, which is theoretical disposition to the human action and here is the place for prudence, which is disposition of both intellect and will. It seems that cooperation of both virtues plays the considerable role in human activity. Aquinas claims, that the object of human appetite is only cognizable. In this way wisdom – as a virtue concerning human cognition – is related to the prudence, which includes human cognition as well as appetite. The precise analysis of St. Thomas Aquinas’s texts show, that relationship between wisdom and prudence is very strict and both virtues rely on each other. Practically it means, that one cannot be prudent without being wise and one cannot be wise without being prudent.