Prudence and Executive Control: An Analysis of the Decision-Making Processes of the Christian and the Modern Man

Scientific research and Christian philosophy often appear to be at odds. These different perspectives sometimes offer different answers to the same question. In the light of these perspectives, however, we can gain a greater understanding of the human experience. Executive control, or how a person decides to do something, is unable to account for the greater question of why. St. Thomas Aquinas¹ explanation of prudence provides reasonable evidence in favor of this perspective. In order to understand the Christian intellectual virtue of prudence, a mastery of the classical, Thomistic account is required. Despite the gaps between science and religious thought, the modern narrative does contain some parallels to St. Thomas\u27 reasoning. It is in the differences, and these similarities, that we find the truth behind why humans make decisions