Practical Wisdom and Cosmic Order: Plethon’s Reinterpretation of Phronesis in a Cross-Cultural Horizon

Gemistos Plethon, often regarded as the last great philosopher of Byzantium, redefined classical concepts within his utopian and religious-political vision. Among these, phronesis—traditionally understood in Aristotelian ethics as practical wisdom guiding human action—receives a distinctive reinterpretation. This paper examines Plethon’s use of phronesis across his surviving writings, including the Nomoi, his political Memoranda, and his treatise De Differentiis Platonis et Aristotelis. Plethon retains the Aristotelian sense of phronesis as the faculty of right deliberation, but broadens its scope in two crucial directions. First, phronesis becomes the essential virtue of political leadership, enabling rulers and legislators to shape laws and institutions that mirror rational order. Second, and more innovatively, Plethon integrates phronesis into a Platonic–Neoplatonic framework, where practical wisdom not only secures justice in human affairs but also aligns the soul with divine and cosmic law. Situated at the intersection of Byzantine intellectual tradition, late antique Neoplatonism, and the early Renaissance revival of Plato, Plethon’s conception of phronesis illustrates the cultural cross-currents of his time. While drawing on Aristotle, he adapts Platonic categories inherited through Neoplatonism, and his vision in turn shaped early modern humanist debates. By analyzing the fragments of the Nomoi alongside Plethon’s advisory texts, the paper argues that phronesis is central to his vision of the ideal polity and the harmonious ordering of human life in accordance with the gods. In this sense, Plethon transforms a primarily ethical virtue into a cornerstone of his theological-political philosophy, bridging Byzantine, classical, and Renaissance horizons.