To show how important prudence is to the Christian image of man, Pieper states the following: "Prudence is the cause of the other virtues' being virtues at all." Well, I have already explained that for a person to fulfill the Christian image of man he or she must first attain the four cardinal virtues. And if prudence is the cause of the other three virtues, then it must be the basis of the Christian image of man. If prudence is the basis of the Christian image of man, it is very important for every human being to try to become prudent so that he or she can become a person of goodness. After saying all that, it becomes clear that the Christian image of man is an image that calls for human beings to be good. This is why the most crucial part of attaining the four virtues is being able to recognize and know what the good is. "Prudence is the 'measure' of justice, of fortitude, of temperance." This is also very important because it shows how justice, fortitude, and temperance are not only dependent on prudence; they are also measured by prudence. What Pieper means when he says measured is this: "..the decree of prudence is the prototype and the pre-existing form of which all ethically good action is the transcript." In other words a good action becomes just, brave, and temperate due to the decree of prudence. This goes back to what I was saying about the good and prudence; the relationship is that "whatever is good must first have been prudent." Since prudence calls for the person to be able to recognize the good, a person must then have knowledge about reality. The knowledge of reality is important because one must be able to know what is good in a situation. In order for a person to be able to do this he or she must understand the principles of reason and the singulars with which ethical action is concerned. I believe that all of these actions and realizations are there so that a person may be able to find the just action. This will then lead me to the next virtue in order, which is the virtue of justice.

The virtue of justice is the next virtue in line of importance. This virtue is very dependent on the virtue of prudence for many obvious reasons. The virtue of justice is one which calls for persons to give other persons what is due to them. An unjust person is one who takes or withholds something that belongs to someone else. "All just order in the world is based on this: that man give man what is his due." Above we saw how justice was closely tied to prudence. I also explained how prudence is a virtue, which teaches humans to know the good. "Justice is something that comes second: right comes before justice." This piece of text explains the concept of right comes before justice. As we have seen justice is a virtue, which depends on prudence, and prudence is the ability to recognize what is right. Once a person understands this, it becomes evident as to why prudence precedes justice. Justice asks the human person to act rightly; before a person can do that he or she must know what is right. Prudence is what teaches us what the right and good are and then a person can become just. This is very unique amongst all of the virtues, the fact that one aspect of a virtue affects the next virtue in line. This very unique relationship shows the importance of humans being fully moral. A person cannot act justly while imprudent; this is impossible. Once a person becomes prudent then he or she can move on to act justly. Justice states that man must receive what is his due. This claim has caused much controversy on how do we know, as humans, what is our due. One of the answers that Pieper gives is based on the fact that man is given certain rights through creation. "It is through creation that the created being first comes to have his rights." This does not mean that God owes us certain rights for being created; God does not owe us anything, it is the fellow humans who must give each other

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Approximate Word count = 3438
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)