What is practical wisdom (phronêsis)? 

Practical wisdom is the ability to know what is good for one’s self. It is applying wisdom to judge what is to be done and what is not to be done, and to know what is under our control and what is not. I learned practical wisdom from my late father. He started teaching me practical wisdom through his bedtime stories and I continued to learn from the way he lived. Here are just some of the ways in which I learned the first cardinal virtue, practical wisdom, from him. 

Learning practical wisdom 

From his stories 

It all started when I was still a little girl. He told me this story from the Odyssey: Odysseus and his men land on a rough, uncivilized island of the cyclops. There, they encounter Polyphemus, a one-eyed giant who imprisons Odysseus, devours two of his men and places a rock to cover the cave, saving the others for his future meals. Odysseus refrains from killing Polyphemus, even though he is strong enough to do so. His practical wisdom tells him that if he did that, he would be trapped because he was not strong enough to move the huge rock Polyphemus used to cover the cave. So, when the Cyclops returns, Odysseus gets him drunk and drives a stake through his eyes using burning wood, blinding him. In the morning, Odysseus and his men escape from the cave by clinging to the bellies of the monster’s sheep as they go out to graze. Safe on board their ships and with Polyphemus’s flock on board as well, Odysseus reveals his true identity. With his former prisoners now out of reach, the blind giant realizes that he has been outwitted. 

From his bravery 

My dad continued his lesson: “Did you know that your daddy has also fought against a monster as big and scary as the cyclops? Many years ago, there was a terrible monster that set fires to all the villages where I was growing up. So many people died, even little boys and girls just like you. This monster was called the ‘Nazi’ and spread terror in all of Greece. One day, when you are more grown up, I will tell you all about how I joined an army of men and women, who went to fight this terrible, huge scary monster in the mountains, and how the monster wounded my left shoulder. But that’s not for now, my brave little daughter. Right now, it's time for you to get some rest, you have school tomorrow.” And as he tucked me in, I was intrigued by a curious, crater-like formation on his left shoulder. 

From his endurance 

Several years later, he explained to me that the deep scar-wound on his shoulder was from when he had to cut through his own arm with a knife to dislodge a bullet fired by a German soldier. After removing the bullet, he had sewn his own wound with a needle that he had sterilized in the flame of a candle, somewhere in a cave, up in the mountains of Sparta. This image of my father calmly removing the bullet from his own arm and then sewing himself up, has always inspired me to have endurance and come up with practical solutions, no matter what the challenges are. 

From his approach to problem solving 

I continued to learn about practical wisdom through my father’s approach to resolving problems in a calm, practical, logical manner; from the way he found ‘patents’ for fixing things like a broken lawn-mower to the wise way in which he advised his clients at the bank, my father taught me about solution-oriented, resourceful approaches to dealing with challenges. 

In the next issue, I will talk about how I learned about the second stoic virtue: Justice. 

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Alkistis Agio MA PhD is an Executive coach & Trainer on confidence and leadership based in Athens, Greece. 

 

 

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