Editing Prudence (section)

== Prudential judgment ==
{{more citations needed section|small=y|date=March 2016}}
[[File:Titian - Allegorie der Zeit.jpg|thumb|''[[Allegory of Prudence]]'' by [[Titian]]. To Titian, prudence was preparation, foresight and judgement from experience and human history. The three faces in the painting represent the passing of human generations, with the young facing the light while the oldest fade into shadow; the faint inscription above their heads may be translated as "From the past, the present acts prudently, lest it spoil future action".<ref name=":0">{{cite book|first=David|last=Summers|year=1987|title=The Judgment of Sense: Renaissance Naturalism and the Rise of Aesthetics|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-32675-9}}).</ref>]]

In ethics, a "prudential judgment" is one where the circumstances must be weighed to determine the correct action.<ref>{{Cite web |first=Trent|last=Horn|title=What is a Prudential Judgment? |url=https://www.catholic.com/qa/what-is-a-prudential-judgment |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=Catholic Answers}}</ref> This applies to situations in which two people could weigh the circumstances differently and ''ethically'' come to different conclusions.

For instance, in the theory of [[just war]], the government of a nation must weigh whether the harms they suffer are more than the harms that would be produced by their going to war against another nation that is harming them; the decision whether to go to war is therefore a prudential judgment.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Just and Unjust Wars Summary {{!}} PDF {{!}} Just War Theory {{!}} Preemptive War |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/295701096/Just-and-Unjust-wars-summary |access-date=2023-10-19 |website=Scribd |language=en}}</ref>

As another example, a patient with a terminal illness may hear of an experimental treatment with no conventional alternatives. They would have to weigh, on the one hand, the cost, time commitment, potential lack of benefit, and possible pain, disability, and hastened death, and on the other hand, the potential benefit and the benefits to others that could be gained from what could be learned from their case.