But Practical Wisdom is employed upon human matters,
and such as are objects of deliberation (for we say,
that to deliberate well is most peculiarly the work
of the man who possesses this Wisdom), and no man
deliberates about things which cannot be otherwise
than they are, nor about any save those that have
some definite End and this End good resulting from
Moral Action; and the man to whom we should give the
name of Good in Counsel, simply and without modification,
is he who in the way of calculation has a capacity
for attaining that of practical goods which is the
best for Man. 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.
VIII
Further: [Greek: politikhae] 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 [Greek: politikhae],
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).
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.
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 [Sidenote:1142a] 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.
