And it is clear that Prudence is not the same as Scientific Knowledge: for as has been said, it apprehends ultimate particular things, since the thing to be done is an ultimate particular thing.2 [9]
Prudence then stands opposite to Intelligence; for Intelligence3 apprehends definitions, which cannot be proved by reasoning, while Prudence deals with the ultimate particular thing, which cannot be apprehended by Scientific Knowledge, but only by perception: not the perception of the special senses,4 but the sort of intuition whereby we perceive that the ultimate figure in mathematics is a triangle5; for there, too, there will be a stop.6 But the term perception applies in a fuller sense to mathematical intuition than to Prudence; the practical intuition of the latter belongs to a different species.78 9. We ought also to ascertain the nature of Deliberative Excellence, and to discover whether it is a species of Knowledge, or of Opinion, or skill in Conjecture, or something different from these in kind. [2]
Now it is not Knowledge: for men do not investigate matters about which they know,