Abstract

examine step by step Aristotle’s argument in Nicomachean Ethics VI with the aim of understanding how phronesis and its correct reason determine the intermediacies so that a virtuous person is able to effectively perform his actions according to his purposes. In order to determine the intermediacies, phronesis involves a good use of deliberative reasoning but also a quasi-perceptual evaluation of singular factors on which every action depends. I claim that this second task attributed to phronesis allows us a better understanding of its definition as “praktike” as well as of its interdependency with moral virtue.

Keywords: moral virtue, prudence, practical wisdom, reason, intermediacy, prohairesis.