200 ARISTOTLE
That is why these characteristics are regarded as natural endowments and,
although no one is provided with theoretical wisdom by nature, we do think that men
have good sense, understanding, and intelligence by nature. An indication of this is that
we think of these characteristics as depending on different stages of life, and that at a
given stage of life a person acquires intelligence and good sense: the implication is that
[human] nature is the cause. Therefore, we ought to pay as much attention to the say-
ings and opinions, undemonstrated though they are, of wise and experienced older men
as we do to demonstrated truths. For experience has given such men an eye with which
they can see correctly.*
We have now completed our discussion of what practical and theoretical wisdom
are; we have described the sphere in which each operates, and we have shown that each
is the excellence of a different part of the soul.- The Use of Theoretical and Practical Wisdom:One might raise some questions
about the usefulness of these two virtues. Theoretical wisdom, [as we have described it,]
will study none of the things that make a man happy, for it is not at all concerned with the
sphere of coming-to-be [but only with unchanging realities]. Practical wisdom, on the other
hand,isconcerned with this sphere, but for what purpose do we need it? (1) It is true that
practical wisdom deals with what is just, noble, and good for man; and it is doing such
things that characterizes a man as good. But our ability to perform such actions is in no way
enhanced by knowing them, since the virtues are characteristics, [that is to say, fixed capac-
ities for action, acquired by habit]. The same also applies, after all, to matters of health and
well-being (not in the sense of “producing health and well-being” but in the sense of “being
healthy and well” as the manifestation of a physical condition or a characteristic): our abil-
ity to perform actions [which show that we are healthy and well] is in no way enhanced by
a mastery of the science of medicine or of physical training.
(2) But if we are to say that the purpose of practical wisdom is not to knowwhat
is just, noble, and good, but to becomejust, noble, and good, it would be of no use at all
to a man who is already good. Moreover, it is of no use to those who do not have virtue,
for it makes no difference whether they have practical wisdom themselves or listen to
others who have it. It is quite sufficient to take the same attitude as we take toward
health: we want to be healthy, yet we do not study medicine.
(3) In addition, it would seem strange if practical wisdom, though [intrinsically]
inferior to theoretical wisdom, should surpass it in authority, because that which pro-
duces a thing rules and directs it.
These, then, are the questions we must discuss: so far we have only stated them as
problems.
First of all, then, we should insist that both theoretical and practical wisdom are
necessarily desirable in themselves, even if neither of them produces anything. For each
one of them is the virtue of a different part of the soul.
Secondly, they do in fact produce something: theoretical wisdom produces
happiness, not as medicine produces health, but as health itself makes a person healthy.
For since theoretical wisdom is one portion of virtue in its entirety, possessing and
actualizing it makes a man happy. [For happiness, as we have seen (Book I, 7) consists
in the activity of virtue.]
In the third place, a man fulfills his proper function only by way of practical
wisdom and moral excellence or virtue: virtue makes us aim at the right target, and
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*The “eye given by experience” is of course nous,“intelligence.”5