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machiavelli, prince and discourses
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Relationship Between the Sovereign and the Subjects in More's Utopia, Machiavelli's The Discourses, and Hobbes' The Leviathan
Thomas More, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Thomas Hobbes offer models for the relationship between the sovereign and the people in their works Utopia, The Discourses, and The Leviathan. Each argues that ensuring the common good of the people should be the primary goal of the sovereign. However, they differ in the specifics of their descriptions of this relationship and in their explanations of the sovereign’s motivation for valuing the prosperity of the people. An examination of the specified passages in each of these works will clarify the comparison of their models for this relationship.
More’s discussion of the sovereign occurs in the context of the discussion of a monarch as the trustee of the welfare of the people. The king is a common citizen who has been invested with the authority or "majesty" of sovereignty. He is then distinguished from the rest of the population by the responsibilities he has to them and the powers that are inherent in these responsibilities. He is bound to fulfill these responsibilities and not to abuse the privileges by the threat of rebellion from the poor and, therefore, discontented people that would result from incompetent or misused sovereignty.
He is also constrained by his own natural desire for prestige, and his prestige is dependent on his subjects’ wealth and well being. To desire this kind of prestige, he must be a virtuous man. Without this virtue, his vices of pride and laziness are likely to reduce him to taking his subjects’ property in order to serve his greed and to attempt their pacification by reducing them to abject poverty. If his own prid...
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...larly influenced by the monarch’s level of incompetence or corruption.
All three sovereigns rely upon "virtu," that is, effectiveness in ensuring the common good of their subjects; however, all three have different definitions of what constitutes "virtu." In More’s sovereignty, it is controlling human nature and channeling it into promoting the general prosperity. For Machiavelli’s sovereignty, it is the result of the pursuit of self-interested goals, both on the part of the ruler and the ruled. In Hobbes’ sovereignty, it is the logical result of fear and of human, peace seeking, nature.
Works Cited
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan, ed. Edwin Curley (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1994.
More, Thomas. Utopia. Trans. Clarence H. Miller. 2nd ed. Yale University Press. 2001
Walker, Leslie J. The Discourses of Niccolo Machiavelli Routledge, 2013
Machiavelli divides all states into principalities and republics, principalities are governed by a solitary figure and republics are ruled by a group of people. With Hobbes’ Leviathan a new model for governing a territory was introduced that can no longer be equally divided into Machiavelli's two state categories. Hobbes combines the concepts for governing principalities and republics into a new type of political thought that is similar to and different from Machiavelli. Hobbes, unlike Machiavelli, is on the side of the people and not the armed prophets. Hobbes believes that the function of society is not just merely living, but to have a safe and comfortable life. He believes that by transferring all rights to a sovereign the threat of the state of nature will be diminished. A sovereign elected will be able to represent and protect everyone equally, they are not a ruler of the people but a representative. The Leviathan differs from a principalities and a republics by establishing the institution of the commonwealth through the social contract.
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...d seek peace. In establishing a covenant and instituting a sovereign, men give up the rights they possessed in the state of nature, as well as the right to live without tyranny. However for Hobbes, those sacrifices are overshadowed by what is gained by living under a truly absolute sovereign. A sovereign, corrupt or not, guarantees order and prevents chaos and death. Those are, word for word, the reasons the social contract was initially established and therefore fully justify the creation of an absolute sovereign. Thomas Hobbes, who wrote Leviathan during the English Civil Wars, looked out his window at chaos and decided that survival should be pursued at all costs.
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Thomas Hobbes and Nicolo Machiavelli were two men who lived in different eras, however, their philosophy is quite similar. In both “The Prince” and “Leviathan”, Hobbes and Machiavelli outline the need to have a sovereignty to achieve the ideal peace. To have a sovereignty, you must excel at war because others will try to fight and sovereigns have to protect their citizens. However, the way of achieving that ideal peace and becoming sovereign is different in the eyes of Hobbes and Machiavelli. Hobbes believes that the ruler should be well liked yet feared at the same time, while Machiavelli believes that a sovereign should always be feared because it will stop the chances of an uprising.
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The philosophers Thomas Hobbes and Niccolo Machiavelli, both speak of humans in their natural state, and how they are self-centred and greedy. Hobbes, in his work Leviathan, goes on to show that in order to control human nature, society must elect for a sovereign to rule and serve as the head, to represent the entire population. In contrast, Machiavelli in The Prince, shows how even with the sovereign in place, human nature will shine through and attempt to overthrow the ruler. Through his work, he teaches those in that position how to remain in power, or even those without power how to gain it and keep it. In this paper I will show through the works of these
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