"Prudence is but experience, which equal time, equally bestows on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto"
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Hobbes reduces prudence to the practical residue of lived experience. What many traditions elevate as a rare moral virtue or innate sagacity he treats as the outcome of repeated encounters with similar causes and effects, remembered and applied. Time, he argues, distributes this resource fairly: given enough years, people can accumulate comparable experience, but only where they devote comparable attention and effort. Prudence is therefore domain-specific and earned, not a blanket credential that confers authority in all matters.
This view fits Hobbes’s broader empiricism and his mechanistic account of the mind. Sense impressions leave traces; memory strings these into sequences; from recurring patterns the mind forms expectations. Prudence is forecasting grounded in familiarity, not a mysterious faculty. A seasoned navigator reads the sea prudently; a farmer reads the sky. Neither is prudent everywhere, and neither is prudent by nature alone. Even age does not guarantee wisdom, because the gift of time must be matched by application. One can squander years and remain imprudent, or compress learning through focused practice.
The egalitarian note has political bite. If prudence arises from experience rather than noble birth or a special spark, claims to rule by superior wisdom look suspect. Hobbes does not deny that some counsel better than others, but he denies that authority rests on an intrinsic, universal prudence. Sovereignty, in his theory, comes from covenant, not from the personal brilliance of a natural aristocracy. At the same time, his emphasis on the near equality of human faculties helps explain the friction of the state of nature: people judge themselves sufficiently prudent and so contest precedence.
There is also a quiet critique of empty reputation. Those who trade on airs of wisdom without the backing of disciplined experience are impostors. For Hobbes, real prudence is cumulative, local, and testable by outcomes. It is less a halo than a habit: careful attention paid over time to the stubborn regularities of the world.
This view fits Hobbes’s broader empiricism and his mechanistic account of the mind. Sense impressions leave traces; memory strings these into sequences; from recurring patterns the mind forms expectations. Prudence is forecasting grounded in familiarity, not a mysterious faculty. A seasoned navigator reads the sea prudently; a farmer reads the sky. Neither is prudent everywhere, and neither is prudent by nature alone. Even age does not guarantee wisdom, because the gift of time must be matched by application. One can squander years and remain imprudent, or compress learning through focused practice.
The egalitarian note has political bite. If prudence arises from experience rather than noble birth or a special spark, claims to rule by superior wisdom look suspect. Hobbes does not deny that some counsel better than others, but he denies that authority rests on an intrinsic, universal prudence. Sovereignty, in his theory, comes from covenant, not from the personal brilliance of a natural aristocracy. At the same time, his emphasis on the near equality of human faculties helps explain the friction of the state of nature: people judge themselves sufficiently prudent and so contest precedence.
There is also a quiet critique of empty reputation. Those who trade on airs of wisdom without the backing of disciplined experience are impostors. For Hobbes, real prudence is cumulative, local, and testable by outcomes. It is less a halo than a habit: careful attention paid over time to the stubborn regularities of the world.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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