Putting it All Together: The Synthetic Character of Practical Wisdom

The three previous chapters outline three aspects of practical wisdom, each of which presents challenges for formal modeling efforts: the objectives of human action are too complex to be mimicked by a single-valued utility function; the contingency that confronts any practical decision cannot be fully captured by probabilistic and expected utility approaches; the internal conflict that attends most human action, and the role of the virtues in managing that conflict, can only be imperfectly modeled. Although this chapter and the one that follows continue to explore the ways in which formal models of choice fall short of the Aristotelian account, they will not add to the threefold list of the previous chapters. Instead, these two chapters will take a broader look at practical wisdom, not in its aspects, but as a whole. This chapter highlights the synthetic nature of practical wisdom—the necessity of combining the challenges presented separately in the previous three chapters into one decision. The next chapter will ask: where does practical wisdom reside? Where can it be found?