Compare And Contrast Hobbes And Machiavelli

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Hobbes and Machiavelli: Power Hungry Individuals 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. Machiavelli believes that leaders do not have to be loved. In his text he states “Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one …show more content…

They both believe that there should be one person in power, and the person should be liked, but not loved. They agree on the fact that leaders should always be good at war so the citizens can be protected during critical times, leaving the citizens to have full faith in the leader. This also protects the leader from potential attacks by the citizens. Being good at war instills fear in both the citizens and the potential sovereignties that would want to attack. I believe that both Machiavelli and Hobbes are fearful of war themselves. In both of their texts there is a lot of information about wars and what to do about them. However, they always wanted the sovereign to be the strongest side and to have the most power. Maybe both Hobbes and Machiavelli thought that there would be a revolt? Maybe they wanted to start the revolt

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