Medical prudence or practical reason applied to the clinical care in Thomas Aquinas

Abstract

This article offers a philosophical reconstruction of medical prudence based on the thought of Thomas
Aquinas to provide an adequate category for understanding the rationality of the medical procedure.
Facing approaches that reduce good medical practice to the technical application of protocols or to the
professional’s subjective intuition, this article advocates that medicine requires a specific form of practical
prudence. To this end, the it examines the notion of virtue and addresses prudence as a virtue that is
formally intellectual and materially moral, attending to its subject, its acts, and its relationship with the
moral virtues. The study also translates prudence integral parts into the clinical sphere, highlighting memory,
intelligence, docility, foresight, and caution. Finally, the article defines medical prudence as a straight practical
reason applied to the care of a concrete patient, oriented toward the patient’s well-being through the
proportionate integration of evidence, experience, patient values, safety, justice, and institutional context.