Featured
Scholar:
Regev Ben Jacob
2005 - 2006 University Scholar
Mentor: Leslie Paul Thiele
College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences
Practical wisdom, or prudence, was a concept first explored by Aristotle in ancient Greece. Terming it “phronesis,” the great thinker argued moral thought was an essential trait for those hoping to achieve a good life. Cicero later explored the same idea, which he called “prudentia.” As a University Scholar, Regev Ben Jacob has spent a year investigating how this old world value can be applied to modern times.
“In Athens, it was considered important for political life,” he says. “Aristotle considered this a critical intellectual virtue. If you had it, all the ethical virtues would come to you because you knew the right thing to do in differing situations.”
For his University Scholars Program project, Ben Jacob looked at the works of contemporary philosophers, searching for affirmation of the relevance of practical wisdom in today’s society. He explored “Truth and Method” by Hans-Georg Gadamer, “Making the Social Sciences Matter” by Bent Flyvbjerg, and works by various other thinkers. In particular, Ben Jacob focused on how practical wisdom can be gained through power narratives.
“By analyzing how modern thinkers have re-imagined phronesis,” Ben Jacob says, “I hope I have contributed to a greater understanding of practical judgment both as a central classical virtue, and as a vital human faculty for the modern citizen who is continually challenged by an increasingly technological and bureaucratic society.”
Ben Jacob graduated with honors from UF in May with a BA in political science and English. As an undergraduate, he served as president of Golden Key International Honors Society and sat on the Board of Directors for The Children’s Table, a Gainesville charity serving the needy of North Central Florida. Ben Jacob was also selected as a Reitz Scholar and worked as a research assistant in the Department of Political Science for Assistant Professor Patricia J. Woods.
Now that he is out of college, Ben Jacob plans to take a year off from school and move to Los Angeles to do non-profit work and study for the GRE. He then plans to return to graduate school and earn a PhD in philosophy. He had originally hoped to go to law school, and even served on as mock trial chair in the pre-law society Phi Alpha Delta, but after his USP experience decided he wanted to continue studying philosophical theory.
“This project will definitely be helpful for my graduate studies,” he says. “This was a good starting point to ground my ideas and delve deep into key texts that sparked my interests in philosophy. After doing this project, I now know this is something I want to continue doing.”
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