Carnal Prudence

Carnal prudence or prudence of the flesh is sham prudence. It is not a virtue, but a vice which wears the mask of prudence. It is the vice of a person who regards fleshly goods as the chief end of existence. It is a sin, for it is a fundamental disorder in a person, and one that is the person’s own fault.

To hold carnal goods as the complete end of existence would be a mortal sin. But prudence of the flesh hardly ever goes to such extremes. Commonly, it is an inordinate estimate of the importance and value of some particular carnal good, and stands opposed to some special kind or variety of prudence. And usually it is a venial sin.

When a man uses trickery, or counterfeits honesty, when working for an end, he is guilty of craftiness. This is a special sin against prudence, distinct from carnal prudence but like it in masking itself as true prudence. St. Gregory includescarnal prudence and craftiness under the title of worldlyprudence.

Craftiness is chiefly in the tricky mind of the craftyman; it is a quality of his plans and projects. But when plan or project is carried out in fact, then it appears as guile.

Guile may take the form of words or deeds. When it appears in deeds, it has the special name of fraud.

We are divinely instructed to rely upon God, and not tobe overanxious about material things; we are not to be over-solicitous, for this is a kind of worldly prudence, and not true prudence. In St. Matthew (6:31) we read: “Be notsolicitous, therefore, saying what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed?”

Nor are we to be over-anxious about the future, for we read (Matt. 6:34): “Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow;for the morrow will be solicitous for itself.”

Carnal prudence, craftiness, guile, and fraud are sins of false prudence. And yet they are essentially contrary to justice. Their source is the chief of sins against justice, that is, covetousness. Although these sins areimprudences, they are called the “daughters ofcovetousness.”