Niccolò Machiavelli

Ferdinand II, King of Aragon plays a large role in Machiavelli’s The Prince. Although Machiavelli utilizes Cesare Borgia as the central example figure, Ferdinand II is the ultimate example of Machiavelli’s teachings and message. Ferdinand is ruthless, his mind is always preoccupied with war, he acts on his ambitions swiftly and before others can, and has achieved a balance of being both pious and cruel. In the text he’s described as “an almost new prince,” one whose example you can find none which are “more retched and rarer than [his]” (88). He is also “The First Christian Prince,” and plays a critical role in The Prince in distinguishing the part in which the church plays in establishing new modes and orders. In fact, in Machiavelli’s unfolding…

Thomas Hobbes and Niccolo Machiavelli, both grappling with regional instability and constant war, arrive at different frameworks for handling man’s inherent propensity for conflict from very similar models of human behavior. Hobbes, watching his fellow countrymen fight each other during the English Civil War, decided that humans perpetually desire more power to secure their well-being and therefore incline toward warfare as a means to achieve this. Machiavelli, similarly accustomed to the…

Applying Niccolò Machiavelli’s Principles in The Prince to Tiffany & Co. Niccolò Machiavelli, an Italian diplomat and philosopher, wrote The Prince during the period when the Medici family returned to power during the 16th century. In this book, Machiavelli describes and explains different points of advice for a prince to become a successful and reputable ruler. The Prince can be considered as a handbook for princes, and even after Machiavelli’s death in 1527, these ideas of guidance still…

philosophers, such as Machiavelli, who believed to be the father of political science and a political philosopher (Potter, Barzun). Originally, Machiavelli wrote The Prince to aspire of obtaining the approval of the Medici family, and he intentionally constructed its assertions provoking…

argue that the two authors have a similar view on how fear is politically relevant. What makes fear relevant to Machiavelli and Hobbes is that they believe that fear is necessary for a sovereign or a prince to stay in power. The two authors also believe that it is needed to keep the subjects in check and to keep them complacent. Today however there are people who question if fear is politically relevant today. To them I would say that fear still holds a lot of influence in how governments are…

In my essay I will first sate the traits of an ideal knight and then discuss the characteristics of an ideal knight as represented in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight while comparing and contrasting them to the characteristics of ideal knights in traditional texts. Quoting examples from the text, I will then discuss, analyze and come to a conclusion if Sir Gawain has been represented as an ideal knight in the 14th century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. During the Middle Ages and in many…

The Prince, written by Niccolo Machiavelli, is a controversial work of literature that offers the frightening reality of how any government is truly ruled. It varies from the popular patriotic belief that our nation does no wrong, and produces the idea that greed, lies, and sin are necessary evils to a functioning nation. During Machiavelli’s time there were many transitions of power, as mankind was still settling in, and it seemed necessary to him to outline steps for the new rulers, the…

Machiavelli desperately wanted his job back, so he dedicated his book, The Morals of the Prince, to Lorenzo de’ Medici in hopes of winning his favor. If he wasn’t interested in getting his job back, Machiavelli never would have wrote this book and dedicated it to Medici. After introducing the topic of whether it is better for a prince to be feared to or be loved, he argues that, a prince should make himself feared in such a way that, even if he gets no love, he gets no hate either.”…

Through acquired wisdom and experience, Niccolo Machiavelli composed an intricately detailed letter to Prince Lorenzo de Medici in order to gain his favor. Comprised of military, leadership, and royalty advice, the letter has served not only as advisement to the addressed, but also to future leaders in the years to come. Free will is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the ability to make choices that are not controlled by fate or God.” Though many interpret Machiavelli’s opinions and viewpoints in…

The Prince was written by Niccolo Machiavelli in the early 16th century in order to once again get into favor of the ruling family of Florence: The Medici’s. Publically, the goal of The Prince was to inform a ruler (Lorenzo de’ Medici) how to maintain power and stay in good favor of the subjects they rule over. Because of the many contradictions between The Prince and The Discourses, countless scholars have been perplexed by what Machiavelli’s true intentions were. Although it seems like…