Machiavelli's The Prince

Humanism is a phase that arose during the Renaissance as a new idea of how humans should live and how they should be ruled. Humanism is defined as a movement that focused on the importance of the human needs and stresses the potential that humans have along with the goodness of them. This new system proposed a new way to look at governing the people, steering away from the ancient governing of divine authority and catholic dogma. Divine authority and catholic dogmas are guidelines or sets of rules that are created by “Gods” or by rulers who claim to have a relationship with the “Gods”. These articles of faith reveal the truth of how one should live and the beliefs they should follow. During the Renaissance Niccolo Machiavelli wrote a …show more content…
At the beginning of The Prince Machiavelli, chapters 1-10, he discusses many different ways the princes come to power and how they stay in power. In these chapters, he touches on ways rulers become successful and the ways they can destroy their palace and how they can be a successful ruler. This part of the work of literature is the guideline for the do's and don’ts for rulers based on current and past success and failures. The rest of Machiavelli’s work of literature discusses his new approach to ruling an empire, by humanism. This proposition of how a Prince should rule is based on the belief that a set of practical ethics should be used rather than the past theoretical ways presented by divine authority or Catholic dogma. This new set of guidelines focuses on humanism; where the belief that men should live their life in happiness. The old ideas of living established a set way on how men should live, whereas in reality it was not close to how they actually live. This new idea focused on the treatment, accomplishments, and human needs that a Prince should focus on while in rule. In chapters 16 through 19 Machiavelli proposes his suggestions, using a humanism approach, on