EUGÊNIO MATTIOLI GONÇALVES

This research aims to examine the transformation of the Aristotelian-Thomistic notion of prudence - the central concept of the doctrine of virtues and ethical matters - into "political prudence" in the sixteenth century, and the development of this concept in the theories of the "reason of state." Through this investigation, it is possible to note how the classical problem of the useful and honest is carried from Cicero’s Roman Stoicism to the late Renaissance through the work of Justus Lipsius and the thought of Michel de Montaigne, a debate which is directly related to the transformation of the concept of prudence itself.