Niccolo Machiavelli was an Italian diplomat, politician, historian, humanist, philosopher, and writer of the Renaissance period. Born May 3, 1969 in Florence, Italy. Machiavelli, is best known for his book, “The Morals of a Prince”. The central idea in his piece argues that leaders must do anything necessary to hold on to power. Machiavelli supports this thesis by using comparisons and by citing an allegorical metaphor.
First, Machiavelli asserts that it is better to be stingy rather than generous. For example, “ the generous prince, in order to keep his ‘generosity’ up, will have to burden the people with excessively high taxes and squeeze money out of them in every way they can once he has owned up to his own revenue. This will in turn make him hated, so that his generosity will have backfired.” He then expresses, “in our times we have seen great things being accomplished only by men who have had the name of misers; all the others have gone under.” (p. 2) Machiavelli concludes that when a citizen is trying to rise in princedom, generosity is important; thereafter, it’s harmful.
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Machiavelli proclaimed, “if you have to make a choice, to be feared is much safer than to be loved.”(p. 3) A man will portray something he is not, to fulfil his personal desires; he states, “ I conclude that since men love at their own inclination but can be made to fear at the inclination of the prince, a shrewd prince will lay his foundations on what is under his own control, not on what is controlled by others.” (p. 4) Therefore, Machiavelli defends that it is better to be stingy vs. generous and feared rather than loved in order to maintain one's
Niccolò Machiavelli was a man who lived during the fourteen and fifteen hundreds in Florence, Italy, and spent part of his life imprisoned after the Medici princes returned to power. He believed that he should express his feelings on how a prince should be through writing and became the author of “The Qualities of a Prince.” In his essay, he discusses many points on how a prince should act based on military matters, reputation, giving back to the people, punishment, and keeping promises. When writing his essay, he follows his points with examples to back up his beliefs. In summary, Machiavelli’s “The Qualities of a Prince,” provides us with what actions and behaviors that a prince should have in order to maintain power and respect.
...is can only weaken a leader’s state since money is need for many others tasks in a thriving state. For an example, money is need for the purposes of funding an army in unforeseen wars, and funding projects. Machiavelli claim that although a prince that is frugal might not be well liked, by his subjects, at first but he will be appreciated late when he is able to carry out costly functions of a state without imposing heavy taxes on them. He gives examples of many different leaders of his time. One example Machiavelli lays out is King of France who was able to wage many wars without imposing heavy taxes on his subjects because he been a very frugal ruler for a long time. Another example he gives is the king of Spain, Machiavelli argues that if the king of Spain had been more generous to his subject he would not have been able to win so many campaigns for his state.
Niccolo Machiavelli lived in Florence, Italy in the 1400’s. The country of Italy was divided into city-states that had their own leaders, but all pledged alliance to their king. In time in which great leaders were needed in order to help the development of a city-state and country, Machiavelli had a theory that man needed a leader to control them. In his book The Prince, he speaks of the perfect leader.
However, the prince himself must resist from the temptation of greed that power brings. If he becomes too self-obsessed, his subjects will no longer value and adore him. In terms of political power, the theorist believes a successful ruler to be sly and secretive while avoiding hatred and accepting criticisms. He outlines the dangers of liberality, stating that far too much kindness can only end in disaster. Instead, Machiavelli suggests the importance of a fierce and successful ruler to be feared rather than loved. A leader cannot allow a poor reputation to interfere with his judgement, instead he should embrace it and focus on the protection and security of his land and his people. He argues that *great things* have yet to be accomplished by a ruler who has let his compassion for his people cloud his judgement and deter him from taking risks. Through his perspective, a prince should not live virtuously, but instead live wanting to achieve the most practical benefit for his subjects. However, a prince must guard himself from being despised and hated. Machiavelli's beliefs served to bring
Machiavelli’s views were drastically different from other humanists at his time. He strongly promoted a secular society and felt morality was not necessary but stood in the way of a successfully governed state. He stated that people generally tended to work for their own best interests and gave little thought to the well being of the state. He distrusted citizens saying, “In time of adversity, when a state is in need of its citizens, there are few to be found.” In his writings in The Prince, he constantly questioned the citizens’ loyalty and warned for the leaders to be wary in trusting citizens. His radical and distrusting thoughts on human nature were derived out of concern for Italy’s then unstable government. Machiavelli also had a s...
Machiavelli believes that a government should be very structured, controlled, and powerful. He makes it known that the only priorities of a prince are war, the institutions, and discipline. His writings describes how it is more important for a prince to be practical than moral. This is shown where he writes, "in order to maintain the state he is often obliged to act against his promise, against charity, against humanity, and against religion" (47). In addition, Machiavelli argues that a prince may have to be cunning and deceitful in order to maintain political power. He takes the stance that it is better for the prince to be feared than loved. His view of how a government should run and his unethical conduct are both early signs of dictatorship.
Machiavelli is undisputedly one of the most influential political philosophers of all time. In The Prince, his most well-known work, he relates clearly and precisely how a decisive, intelligent man can gain and maintain power in a region. This work is revolutionary because it flies in the face of the Christian morality which let the Roman Catholic Church hold onto Europe for centuries. Machiavelli's work not only ignores the medieval world's ethics: The Prince suggests actions which oppose the four most basic of Christianity's Ten Commandments.
In fact, Machiavelli points out that a prince is more secure if he is feared than if he is loved: "Men hesitate less to injure a man who makes himself loved than to injure one who makes himself feared, for their love is held by a chain of obligation, which, because of men's wickedness, is broken on every occasion for the sake of selfish profit; but their fear is secured by a dread of punishment which never fails you" (1494). The prince's desire to be feared leads him to be cruel and forceful at times, in order to keep himself in power. However, Machiavelli warns that a prince must not be too severe, for in the end, he must escape hatred. Although most would find it despicable for a prince to take one of his citizen's lives, if in doing so he maintains power and control over his subjects, the prince is justified in doing so, as long as he has sufficient reason for his actions. By Machiavelli's logic, for a prince to continue to lead with power and control, his methods must be carefully thought out and employed with
Written almost 500 years ago, Niccolo Machiavelli’s “The Prince” brings forward a new definition of virtue. Machiavelli’s definition argued against the concept brought forward by the Catholic Church. Machiavelli did not impose any thoughts of his own, rather he wrote from his experience and whatever philosophy that lead to actions which essentially produced effective outcomes in the political scene of Italy and in other countries. While Machiavelli is still criticized for his notions, the truth is that, consciously or subconsciously we are all thinking for our own benefit and going at length to achieve it. On matters of power where there is much to gain and a lot more to lose, the concept of Machiavelli’s virtue of “doing what needs to be done” applies rigorously to our modern politics and thus “The Prince” still serves as a suitable political treatise in the 21st century.
Machiavelli's philosophy described in his writings The Prince had a pragmatic approach to politics. Machiavelli, born in 1469 during the Italian Renaissance, was a political philosopher, along with military experience as a defense secretary of the Florentine republic. He believed that a strong leader would provide security. In medieval times kings were appointed by God ruled men. The provided law and were scared individuals.
A prince must find balance between being generous and mean and cruel and kind. A prince must show generosity to gain the respect of his newly obtained citizens. But if he appears to be too generous, man in his evil ways will take advantage of the prince and seek to strip him of all he poses. However, Machiavelli found it, “wiser to have a reputation of meanness which brings criticism without hatred than to be forced through seeking a reputation for generosity,” (Machiavelli 25). Likewise, Machiavelli found that it is better for the prince to be feared rather than loved as, “Men are less worried about offending one who is loved than one who is feared,” (Machiavelli
In recent history, the last fifty years or so, modern businessmen and politicians have given Machiavelli a Renaissance of his own. Professional politicians have written novels they claim to be on the same philosophical level of Machiavelli’s The Prince. Gary Hart, in his book The Patriot: An Exhortation to Liberate America From the Barbarians attempts to update Niccolo to the modern age with his own political philosophies, and attempts to credit Machiavelli by quoting him frequently. “Hart makes an effort to mimic the form, if not the spirit, of the most famous work by his Florentine ‘mentor.’…There is a dedicatory le...
Machiavelli?s model for his ideal prince was Cesare Borgia, also known as Duke Valentino and son of Pope Alexander VI. He believed Cesare Borgia possessed all the qualities of a prince destined to rule and maintain power in his state. He believed that politics has a morality of its own. There is no regard of justness or unjustness, of cruelty or mercy, of approval or humiliation, which should interfere with the decision of defending the state and preserving its freedom. Therefore, the ruler/prince's single responsibilit...
In general, he feels that men are "ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers." "They shun danger and are greedy for profit; while you treat them well, they are yours. They would shed their blood for you ? but when you are in danger they turn against you." Machiavelli basically has little respect for the people, and he feels as though they have not earned much either. He uses this as justification for the use of fear in order to control people. He also feels that men are "wretched creatures who would not keep their word to you, you need not keep your word to them." This sense of fairness justifies breaking one?s word to men. Machiavelli also writes about how hard it must be for a prince to stay virtuous. He concludes that with so many wretched men around virtue is hard to create in oneself. "The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous." Overall, Machiavelli is very pessimistic about the abilities of the people. He feels that after examining people through history, his conclusions of wretched men are
Machiavelli’s advice to princes directly correlated to his view on human nature. He believed that every common man was born evil and selfish. That did not stop him, however, from saying that humans many show instances when they exhibit generosity and wholeheartedness. He does tell princes, however, not to count on the few occurrences that may happen, and he says, “It is necessary to be a prince to know thoroughly the nature of the people, and one of the populace to know the nature of princes”. He is saying is that it is imperative that a prince knows the natural human nature, that each and every human will become more self-interested than interested in the good of the state. If he is ignorant to that fact, his kingdom/area of rule will deteriorate simply because he believes in the citizens that occupy it. He does believe, however, that with the right training, a human being can be molded (with the help of the state, of course) and he says, “Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many.” Although he believes that people cannot change themselves for the good, he does think that the state and military can shape humans for the better, but there will always be