In Vincent Barnett's article that interprets Machiavelli's "The Prince" was intriguing. Many readers were shocked about Machiavelli's guide to be a leader, but he was only telling the truth. To be a successful leader, Machiavelli proposes that "the end justifies the means. " Machiavelli's critical manual was meant to appeal to leaders to reach their goal for the greater good.…
In the 15th and 16th centuries AD, philosophers emerged in Europe who were more secular than their medieval counterparts. Three of these philosophers were Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, and Pico della Mirandola, each of whom had unique ideas about human nature, and the source of people’s joy and sorrow. Machiavelli and Hobbes were both critical of human nature, each proposing their own solution to the flaws they saw in their society, while Mirandola praised humanity’s potential. Niccolò Machiavelli was a political philosopher who lived in Florence, Italy during the Rennaisance. While in exile, and hoping for political employment, he wrote The Prince, in which he claimed that humans, inherently corrupt, must be ruled by a prince who prioritizes effective government over morality and ethics.…
Would Socrates Support a Machiavellian System? During a time of political turmoil, it is hard to know who to trust, and who should lead. In “The Prince” Machiavelli lists a plethora of guidelines as to how a prince should gain political power along with ways for them to ensure this power is long-lasting. Although Socrates and Machiavelli both lived in time periods with serious political issues, Socrates would not support Machiavelli’s concept of a Prince, or any type of government created as a result of Machiavellian principles.…
The Morals of the Prince is written by Italian diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli; in which it was published as “The Prince,” in 1532 during the Renaissance era. Many of Machiavelli’s theories are birthed from the encounters of the Medici dynasty. Machiavelli wrote The Prince to exhibit how Princes ought to live versus how they truly live in terms of dealing with their subjects and friends. Machiavelli executes his claims successfully through the use of rhetorical appeals portrayed in this treatise.…
Machiavelli wrote his Discourses on Livy in 1517, as a response to the Roman historian Livy, in which he goes in depth about his take on republican ideals, including the guardianship of liberty, the effects of religion on the state, and the danger of conspiracies against the sovereign. He argues about who should be responsible for guarding the liberty of the republic, whether or not this power should reside with the people or the noble classes, using the political structure of ancient Rome and of Venice as evidence for his theories. In chapter 12, Machiavelli elaborates on the causes of the disunity of the Italian state, and why religion is responsible for this, being that the Church is both to weak to hold supreme hold over Italy and yet too…
The passage’s central argument is that the end justifies the means. More specifically, if a prince achieves a good end, he will be respected, regardless of the methods he employed to get there. A prince should act virtuously when he is able to, yet there are times in which he has no other choice than to act cruelly. In addition, a reputation of generosity requires a lot of money; expensive and ostentatious demonstrations of giving take away from the budget for protection and projects that benefit the community. Therefore, a prudent prince should not mind being called a miser if he is able to retain these funds.…
I think Niccolo Machiavelli is the most important figure because according to Chapter 5: Renaissance and Reformation, he did many things that influenced this time period, here’s one of them. “His book The Prince is one of the most influential works on political power in the Western world” (Textbook 160). Machiavelli wrote The Prince and it has made an impact on most people back then. In my opinion, he did a good thing by writing the book. Although most people probably never read it, it has still affected them at least a little because others around them were reading it and talking about it.…
In The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli’s guidelines for being an efficient ruler differ from Petrarch's in that they emphasize fear over love; moreover, Machiavelli upends Petrarch’s arguments by insisting that generosity only leads to hatred. In the 17th chapter of Machiavelli’s iconic text, he emphasizes the importance of fear over love. He writes, “From this a dispute arises, whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse...because it is difficult to put them together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one has to lack one of the two” (Machiavelli 66). Machiavelli argues a ruler should strive to be both feared and loved, but due to the difficultness of doing so, he concludes that being feared is safer than being loved -- that is, in terms of being a powerful ruler.…
During the Renaissance Niccolo Machiavelli wrote a…
Every government has a king, prince, queen, president etc. They are in charge of maintaining leadership and control within the people and the states. In Machiavelli’s work “The Prince,” the ideal prince should be wise, thoughtful, and versatile. Wise in his way he runs the kingdom. Thoughtful in the way he communicates with his people of the kingdom and takes their concern into consideration.…
Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in chapter 15 of his famous work, The Prince that “it is necessary for a ruler, if he wants to hold on to power, to learn how not to be good, and to know when it is and when it is not necessary to use this knowledge” (Machiavelli, The Prince, 48). Throughout The Prince, Machiavelli emphasizes the importance of being crafty and the necessity of being violent. He makes it clear that in order to be a successful ruler, one does not always have to be good; moreover, one should not be good all the time. A ruler can only succeed, Machiavelli notes, when he masters the art of administering cruelty when the circumstances deem necessary. The late nineteenth century and early twentieth century political scientist Max Weber, however,…
“The way to have power is to take it.” These were the words of a man that was rated one of the top ten most corrupt US politicians of all time by Real Clear Politics. A corrupt leader could be considered a Machiavellian. Dictionary.com describes a Machiavellian as someone who follows the principles analyzed and described in The Prince. The Prince, is a book written in in 1513 by Niccolo Machiavelli that was dedicated to the Magnificent Lorenzo de' Medici.…
In 1434, the Medici family gained control of the Republic of Florence. The family started solely as bankers. They gained power by financially supporting Pope John XXIII and continuing to serve as the direct bank of the Pope. The Medici family ruled Florence from 1434-1737 and are remembered for so many incredible Florentine successes. In the same era, Niccolo Machiavelli, an Italian philosopher, wrote a book entitled The Prince.…
At face value, The Prince and the Discourses seem to have a conflicting nature, but both texts focus on the administration of a state and present textual similarities. Much of what Machiavelli writes in The Prince reinforces the Discourses, echoing both stylistically and thematically. Machiavelli uses pragmatic methods in both and accentuates the importance of historical studies. In The Prince, there is a significant amount of reference to Cesare Borgia, a man that Machiavelli admires, and he states, “I shall never hesitate to cite Cesare Borgia and his actions,” and his views on virtue and fortune come out of Borgia’s narrative . For Machiavelli, Borgia is the superlative example of a man who can compel any individual to do the distasteful…
In many political philosopher’s eyes, there is a special relationship between the ideas of moral goodness and legitimate authority. Some of these political philosophers believed that the use of political power was only morally correct if it was exercised under a ruler who had virtuous morals. These rulers who had virtuous morals were then told that in order to be successful, they needed to make decisions in accordance with the standards of ethical goodness. This moralistic view of authority is what Machiavelli criticizes in his work “The Prince.” In Machiavelli’s book, “The Prince,” the readers are introduced to political values that do not necessarily give full recognition to morality or religion.…