Phronetics

I am coining 'Phronetics' to mean 'the study of best Conduct'. The term derives from the Greek 'phronesis', meaning 'practical wisdom'. Phronesis is a notion that might be most notable for its neglect in the Philosophical tradition, beginning with Aristotle's subordination of it to 'Sophia', meaning 'theoretical wisdom', as part of his designation of Contemplation as the Highest Good. A critique of the traditional prioritizing of the latter has already been discussed here, so not merely the subordination of Phronesis to Sophia, but the traditional separation itself of Theory and Practice is rejected here. Phronesis treats approximately the same questions as what traditionally appear under the rubrics 'Ethics' or 'Morality', but the need to get clear of the centuries of confusions and distracting connotations that have become attached to those terms motivates the neologism. For example, the contemporary loose interchangeability of 'Ethics' and 'Morality' obscures an important distinction. The latter derives from the Latin 'mores', meaning 'practices', so 'Morality' is most precisely concerned with acts considered impersonally, e. g. the Ten Commandments. On the other hand, the former is from the Greek meaning 'habits' and 'character', e. g. Aristotle's Ethics is a character-building program. In contrast with both, Phronetics is more choreography than God-appeasement, and can entail the breaking of habit as much as the creating of one.