Machiavelli's The Prince

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The definition of moderation is the avoidance of excess or extremes. Aristotle explains that a happy person will exhibit a personality evenly balanced between desire (vice) and reason (virtue). Moderation, to Aristotle, is the “happy medium” between virtue and vice. Therefore, he states that only true happiness can be obtained through the cultivation of the virtues that complete a human life. In The Prince, Machiavelli uses two words a great deal of times: “virtue and fortune.” Machiavelli actually rejects Aristotle’s virtues in moderation through his book, The Prince. Machiavelli explains, in a hard-nosed realist point of view, human nature. Essentially, he explains thats human beings are wretched creatures who are only governed by the law of their own self-interest. Machiavelli often poses the question of whether it is better for a prince to be feared or loved. He does not enter into a “middle” answer. Both love and fear are the two extremes. Aristotle’s moderation is in between the two extremes. He is straight to the point and goes to either side of the extremes unlike Aristotle. This is specifically seen in Chapter 17 when he says, “But since it is difficult for a ruler to be both feared and loved, it is much safer to be feared than loved…” He claims that this quote is true because love is fickle, whereas, fear is constant …show more content…
He elaborates that fortune is temporal instability. He claims that love falls under the category of fortune because it is stable but rather shifty. In chapter 25, he tells us that fortune controls the fate of a prince but human free will also has its effect. “I hold that it could be true that fortune is the arbiter of half of actions, but that she still leaves the other half, or close to it, to be governed by us.” Aristotle would not agree with any of this considering that he is about moderation. Machiavelli sticks to one side and doesn't sway in the

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