Phronesis is a word derived from the ancient Greeks denoting wisdom, or intelligence. More than that, however, phronesis referes to the ethic, prudent or “right” thing to do, and so is sometimes translated simply as “practical wisdom.” This, then, is a term close to the heart of the members of the American Academy or Orthopaedic Manual Physical Therapists (AAOMPT).  Phronesis certainly doesn’t refer to phonophoresis, which is a wholly different, if not similarly philosophic thing in it’s own right!

In the ethical treatise On Virtues and Vices (sometimes attributed to Aristotle), phronesis is characterized as the “wisdom to take counsel, to judge the goods and evils and all the things in life that are desirable and to be avoided, to use all the available goods finely, to behave rightly in society, to observe due occasions, to employ both speech and action with sagacity, to have expert knowledge of all things that are useful” (translated by H. Rackam).

AAOMPT will use this blog as  a voice, a place for discussion, and a place to foster just a bit more phronesis in the world.