Publication Details

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reconstruct Dante Alighieri’s understanding of the virtue of prudence by analyzing both his explicit formulations and symbolic representations depicting its role in attaining happiness by means of practical action, as well its political aspects. Dante’s approach is con fronted with that of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, and the text argues in favor of understanding Dante’s character of Virgil in the Divine Comedy as a sym bolic representation of Aristotelian prudence in a Christian framework of frequent interaction between the natural and supernatural realm of human experience.