Cardinal virtue of Wisdom/Prudence

Ross G Caldwell

In my reading of medieval texts, I do sense that Prudence is distinguished from the other virtues. It is highest of the cardinal virtues.

One text close to the earliest trionfi cards illustrates this - the funeral eulogy for Gian Galeazzo Visconti, written by Petrus de Castelleto in 1402 (unpublished, Bibl. nat. ms. lat. 5888).

Petrus compares Gian Galeazzo to "Twelve Stars which are twelve
virtues". He then pronounces his sermon, which is structured on twelve virtues - he names a virtue, and describes how Gian Galeazzo exemplified it.

He divides them into four sets of three:

1. Faith
2. Hope
3. Charity

4. Justice
5. Fortitude
6. Temperance

7. Prudence
8. Piety
9. Mercy (Clementia)

10. Magnificence
11. Intelligence
12. Humility

Note that Prudence belongs to a different set of three.

Catholic theologians (can't avoid Catholic theology when talking about the cardinal virtues in medieval thought) call Prudence the "mother of virtues". Here is a good modern discussion which illustrates this thinking -

http://www.catholicherald.com/saunders/02ws/ws020228.htm

The other three follow -

http://www.catholicherald.com/saunders/02ws/ws020307.htm

I will have to read Aquinas again to see if he makes the same point.
 

Ross G Caldwell

Aquinas

Aquinas says of the three -
(his discussion of the virtues is in "The second part of the second part" of the Summa Theologica)

"Hence it is evident that justice and fortitude are more excellent virtues than temperance: while prudence and the theological virtues are more excellent still."
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/314108.htm

Again -

"On the other hand prudence is differentiated from the moral virtues according to a formal aspect distinctive of powers, i.e. the intellective power, wherein is prudence, and the appetitive power, wherein is moral virtue. Hence it is evident that prudence is a special virtue, distinct from all other virtues."
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/304705.htm

(note that the "moral virtues" is a term for the cardinal virtues).

How and why this subtle distinction, evident from medieval sources, would influence the designers of tarot cards, remains to be argued.
 

Ross G Caldwell

Re: Cardinal virtue

Frank Hall said:
I like the virtues referred to as a "lost yoga of the west." They sound like passive nouns but are the soul refining itself or denying its own inherent need to refine itself. The four cardinal virtues go back to Pythagoras and Plato and continue through the neoplatonists , medieval Christians , and on into modern ethics.

I also like to think of the "Art of Courtly Love", as expressed by Troubadour poetry, Arthurian romances, Dante, Petrarch, the Fideles d'Amor and on into the 16th century by Boiardo and Ariosto, as a kind of Christian "tantra" - it is using desire, inspired by the image of beauty, to attain the highest levels of contemplation and inspiration.

By "image of beauty" we can understand the platonic idea informing all of this. It is not the "via negativa" of pure aseticism, but recognizing that the most beautiful physical thing (typically a woman for our poets, romancers and philosophers) is a mirror of divine perfection.

It is easy to see why orthodox theologians found this "path" dangerous, since both idolatry and fornication are bound to happen. But for its devotees, it was a path of grace, through humiliation, for those able to bear it.

I haven't been able to work out any of this in detail, but it remains a touchstone idea after many years, and I hope to pursue it sometime.
 

Parzival

Cardinal virtue

Excellent ideas, I think. The Platonic and Neoplatonic approach to contemplation sees certain spiritual images as windows into higher realms of gnosis, if the contemplator reverently invisions and then transparents the invision --- it begins with Plato's Symposium about which Ficino wrote esoteric commentaries. Spenser's " Four Hymnes" carry such contemplation into English poetry. Maybe the Renaissance Tarot is , to coin an imperfect phrase, " Neoplatonic-Iconic ". Maybe it's a sequenced contemplative journey from earthly love to heavenly love, along with Dante,Ficino,Spenser,Castiglione, and others , including Grail stories. The first ten arcana in general seem this-world , sub-lunar, while the last ten/eleven seem supra-lunar, cosmic. But this does not fit so logically. Think of Emperor(4) and Temperance (14).Chariot(7)and Star(17).Such pairs contrast the sensory world of the Neoplatonists with their worlds of Soul and Mind.But Lovers(6)and Tower (16) do not so readily fit into this scheme. At any rate , to end these rambles, let me cite Plotinus:" If we seek the vision of that Great Being within the inner sanctuary,... we begin by considerimg the images stationed at the outer precincts."("The Three Primal Principles", excerpt.)
 

cartarum

hanged man

yes, i think hanged man is part of the virtue, prudence. one is split between two equally plausible, equally reasonable choices, either he cannot make the choice, and so is unable to go on, or he is unwilling to make the neccessary sacrifices for his happiness. case in point; my friend, anna, keeps making dates with me, then cancelling at the last moment. every time this has happened, just before she calls, i get some sort of invitation to a great party, or something like that. she burns me, then i am shafted for the whole weekend. i try to do the right thing, and trust, that she will finally stik to a plan, but she always burns me. last time, we made plans, i went with my friends instead. this time she didnt even call!
it kinda goes with the hermit that one must sometimes be a little deceptive or rotten to succeed. so, i think that in this case, prudence was a combination of the cards. to make the prudent choice, one must be presented with a situation that calls for prudence. much like the blindness and imprisonment cards weve seen. prudence is in the situation. it is the combination of what you want with what you have to work with. it also makes us predictable. if one is prudent, then they will make the same choice every time.
so, prudence is actually a recipe of cards, and not one in particular. lovers, hanged man, hermit, justice.
~A~
 

kwaw

Ross G Caldwell said:
In my reading of medieval texts, I do sense that Prudence is distinguished from the other virtues. It is highest of the cardinal virtues.

A view that is to be found also in pagan antiquity, particular among the Stoics. The Stoic Seneca wrote 'Perfect prudence is perfect virtue'. It is the mother of the other cardinal virtues in the sense that they are naturally applied or arise from the exercise of 'perfect prudence'.

The three virtues of the tarot appear in the Bible of Notger in a form similar to tarot images, fortitude as an angel holding the mouth of a lion , Justice an angel with scales , temperance an angel pouring from one vase to another. So there does appear to have been some sort of schema in which these three particular virtues are classed together as a group, without the other cardinal virtue prudence. It can be found here [you mnay be asked if you want to install Japanese font, just select 'cancel', the text is in English]:

http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/Enotg1.htm

Kwaw
 

full deck

Thanks for the link

Thanks Kwaw, I enjoyed the linked page and site very much.
 

kwaw

Ross G Caldwell said:
In my reading of medieval texts, I do sense that Prudence is distinguished from the other virtues. It is highest of the cardinal virtues.

As I understand it Prudence is the foundation upon which the other virtues are built. The concept as I said earlier has probably been incorporated into Christianity from the works of the exponent of Stoic philosophy Seneca.

R.G Mortimer in his 'Elements of Moral Theology' writes:

quote
The interconnection of the four cardinal virtues may be put more technically in this way. You cannot have a perfect virtue without prudence, for it is prudence that enables a man to determine in every given case what action, justice, for example, or temperance, demands. It is not always easy to know what is the "fair thing to do", and to arrive at the correct answer is the work of prudence. We may often observe a man who performs countless acts of generosity and who yet does not acquire the virtue of generosity, because his actions are at the same time imprudent—for example, the indiscriminate almsgiver is for this reason a man of generous impulses, but without the virtue of generosity. Again, if a man be the slave of any one vice he lacks prudence: for how can one who repeatedly acts against reason, as a vicious man does, be called prudent? And if a man lacks prudence, how can he know how to be brave or just or temperate? He may perform brave and just acts from time to time, and so foster his natural disposition to bravery as to come near to having the virtue, but he is clearly a man whose judgment cannot be trusted, especially in difficult circumstances. But as a virtue is a habit of acting rightly easily and always, for this reason—that he lacks prudence—he has not virtues. Thus all the virtues depend on prudence as their guide, whereby are determined the proper means for obtaining their ends, and for avoiding those extremes between which the virtues lie. And prudence depends on the other virtues in the sense that they make the exercise of prudence easier; for vices corrupt the judgment and blind the vision,-but the virtues confer clarity of mind and keenness of perception, and the best counsellors are always not the clever merely, but the just and upright.


It will not have escaped notice that we have spoken hitherto of the virtues as wholly within the sphere of natural morality. They are good habits, acquired patiently by the exercise of the human will in obedience to the conclusions of the human reason. By prudence determining on all occasions what is fair, by prudence steering a middle course along the path of fortitude between the extremes of cowardice on the one hand and reck*lessness on the other, by prudence standing firm on the rock of temperance against the seductions of indulgence and the errors of over-austerity, the natural man builds up in himself the moral virtues.
end quote

Kwaw
 

kwaw

full deck said:
Thanks Kwaw, I enjoyed the linked page and site very much.

It is by a Mr. Eguchi Koretaka, I think. Kenji has provided some links to his tarot deck somewhere round here.

Kwaw
 

wandking

I often view The Hermit as embracing "prudence," which is very similar to wisdom. I've often considered the real "missing virtue" in the trumps as charity. There is evidence that one Renaissance deck features the virtues Faith, Hope and Charity separately. Indeed, The Star offers faith and hope; but what card embodies charity in modern Tarot?