Item.
The Threefold Division of Practical Life
Practical philosophy is divided into three ways of life—solitary, private, and public—each with its own ethical vocabulary.
Practical philosophy is divided into solitary, private, and public; or alternatively, into ethical, economic, and political; or alternatively, into moral, administrative, and civil. One is solitary, ethical, and moral; another, again, is private, economic, and administrative. And the same is public, political, and civil.
The Names Behind the Spheres
The terms economist, administrative, and political are each traced to their etymological roots in stewardship, household order, and the city.
An economist is interpreted as a steward. From this, the economic is also called the administrative. Polis in Greek, civitas in Latin is called city; from this the political is named, that is, the civil.
The Solitary Life: Cultivating the Self
The ethical or solitary life is devoted to personal moral formation, self-care, and the pursuit of virtue without regret.
When we constitute the ethical part of the practical strictly, ethical is to be understood as concerning the morals of each person, and it is the same as the solitary. Solitary, therefore, is that which, caring for itself, raises itself up before all, adorns and increases itself with virtues, admitting nothing in life in which it does not rejoice, doing nothing to be repented of.
The Private Life: Ordering the Household
The private sphere concerns the moderate and orderly management of household duties.
The private kind is the one that arranges the duties of a household with moderate order and distributes them.
The Public Life: Serving the Common Good
The public sphere undertakes the care of the commonwealth through foresight, justice, fortitude, and temperance, and is suited to rulers of cities.
The public kind is the one that, undertaking the care of the commonwealth, serves the welfare of all through the skill of its foresight, the balance of justice, the steadfastness of fortitude, and the patience of temperance. Therefore, the solitary kind is fitting for individuals, the private kind for fathers of families, and the political kind for rulers of cities.
Why Practical Philosophy Bears Its Many Names
Practical philosophy is called practical, moral, dispensative, and civil according to the distinct work each sphere performs.
It is called 'practical' in the active sense because it carries out the things it sets before itself through its own operations. It is called 'moral' because through it an honorable way of living is sought after, and practices tending toward virtue are established. It is called 'dispensative' when the order of domestic affairs is arranged wisely. It is called 'civil' because through it the welfare of the entire state is administered.
Read the original Latin
Practica dividitur in solitariam, privatam et publicam; vel aliter, in ethicam, oeconomicam et politicam; vel aliter, in moralem et dispensativam et civilem. una est solitaria, ethica et moralis; una rursum, privata, oeconomica et dispensativa. eademque publica, politica atque civilis. oeconomus interpretatur dispensator. inde oeconomica dicta est dispensativa. polis Graece, Latine civitas dicitur; inde politica dicta est, id est, civilis. quando ethicam partem constituimus practicae, stricte accipienda est ethica in moribus uniuscuiusque personae, et est eadem quae solitaria. solitaria igitur est quae sui curam gerens cunctis sese erigit, exornat augetque virtutibus, nihil in vita admittens quo non gaudeat, nihil faciens paenitendum.
privata est quae familiaris officium mediocri componens dispositione distribuit. publica est quae reipublicae curam suscipiens, cunctorum saluti suae providentiae sollertia, et iustitiae libra, et fortitudinis stabilitate, et temperantiae patientia medetur. solitaria igitur convenit singularibus, privata patribus familias, politica rectoribus urbium. practica actualis dicitur, eo quod res propositas operationibus suis explicet. moralis dicitur per quam mos vivendi honestus appetitur, et instituta ad virtutem tendentia praeparantur. dispensativa dicitur cum domesticarum rerum sapienter ordo disponitur. civilis dicitur per quam totius civitatis utilitas administratur.
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