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.But, crucially, it is impossible to be practically wise inthe fullest sense without also being clever.The popularity of the bare perception model can sometimes make us forgethow much there is to say about the skills involved in knowing what is needed toact well in a given situation.Consider, for instance, the following remark madeby Richard Sorabji:Whatever other roles practical wisdom may or may not play, I suggest that one role isthis.It enables a man, in the light of his conception of the good life in general, to perceivewhat generosity requires of him, or more generally what virtue and to kalon require ofhim, in the particular case, and it instructs him to act accordingly.³²This is true so far as it goes, but how do we learn what is required in order actaccordingly ? Having correctly perceived that something is required of me is, asI have said, no guarantee of success in acting on that requirement appropriately.The knowledge that, morally speaking, I ought to do something to defusean embarrassing situation or comfort someone in pain does not immediatelyor automatically produce knowledge of how to defuse embarrassment or offercomfort.The exercise of practical wisdom requires both knowing that and knowing how, and cleverness is concerned primarily with the latter.Knowinghow is a skill, and manners are an essential part of that skill.There are people who, while genuinely committed to the ends of offeringcomfort and saving others from embarrassment, are not very good at identifyingthe situations in which others require comfort or rescue from embarrassment.Others, equally committed to the ends, are able to identify such situations, butyet find themselves at a loss for what to say or do in order to bring about comfortor rescue.Although both engage in a kind of cognitive failure, the cognitivefailures are not exactly the same.A wide range of skills and capacities is requiredin order to succeed at fully virtuous action, and it is possible to possess some ofthese skills and capacities while lacking others.One of the central elements of the knowing how aspect of practical wisdomis the ability to make certain kinds of inferences about other people and theircircumstances.Suppose I have it as my aim to protect my sensitive friend fromsocial embarrassment.Succeeding in such an endeavour requires a number ofcognitive skills.I must become aware of which kinds of situations produceembarrassment for him, be able to recognize a given situation as one of that sort,and be able to tell whether my friend is, in fact, becoming embarrassed by whatpasses.In each case, I need a kind of adeptness at interpreting the expressions,language, tone of voice, and postures of other people, both my friend and thosewith whom he is interacting.I also need to know how to defuse or deflecthis embarrassment for instance, how to redirect the conversation, or insert³² Aristotle on the Role of Intellect in Virtue , in Essays on Aristotle s Ethics, ed.Amélie Rorty(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), 206. Manners, Morals, and Practical Wisdom 207an appropriate bit of humour, or remove him from the scene without seemingobvious.Some people may indeed be more talented at this sort of thing bynature, but we cannot underestimate the degree of skill involved.Such thingstake experience and, indeed, even practice.In Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth chastises Darcy for his actions at a ball inHertfordshire, during which he violated rules of gentlemanly behaviour by failingto do his share of dancing with women who would otherwise have to sit out.³³He defends himself by saying that he knew none of the women and that he is ill qualified to recommend himself to strangers.Elizabeth finds this to be aninadequate reply for a man of sense and education, and who has lived in theworld , since such a man should be expected to have greater social skill thanDarcy displayed at the ball.Darcy answers by saying: I certainly have not thetalent which some people possess.of conversing easily with those I havenever seen before.I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interestedin their concerns, as I often see done. Elizabeth is not appeased, suggestinginstead that Darcy s social inadequacies, such as they are, result from his failureto practise perfecting them
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