ABSTRACT
Hunter and Kendrick make the point that practical wisdom and temperance are not characteristics seen only among professionals, but can be regarded as part of what might be considered 'ordinary' or 'everyday' ethics. The authors' primary concern is the way in which virtue ethics relates to social work, in this case practical wisdom and in relation to that temperance, so they turn to a closer consideration of the recent debates in this particular context. It is in this way that practical wisdom supports and enables the other ethical virtues to be expressed in the accomplishment of social work. The authors note that the ethical virtue of temperance may be seen as closely connected to practical wisdom. Papouli refers to the idea of particular virtues being a 'hinge' and in this sense practical wisdom is cardinal because it hinges with temperance to create both the disposition to seek balance and the capacity to achieve it.
