Abstract
We live in an imprudent age. It is not simply that modern times have witnessed some of the worst horrors of human history. Rather, we have difficulty understanding what prudence means. We generally think of prudence as cunning, or better, as that intellectual faculty that enables us to make exceptions to general rules when those general rules, regrettably, do not obtain in every situation. We think this way because we think of social reality, and nature (when it so moves us), as acting according to general, well-regulated norms of repetitive and predictable behavior.
