Machiavelli

     Niccolo Machiavelli, one of the great political minds of the 15th century, accomplished what many mathematicians today only dream of, having one’s name used as an adjective. To be Machiavellian is to demonstrate characteristics of expediency, deceit, and cunning and as Machiavelli wrote in, The Prince, these are the qualities of a great leader. The Prince was published in 1531, creating great controversy with other political thinkers of the time. Machiavelli completely ignored the popular religious teachings of the era and erased the moral and ethical considerations from the leadership equation; the actions of a ruler should be governed solely by necessity. “Since I intend to write something useful to an

Niccolo Machiavelli was born in the city of Florence, on May Third, 1469. He came to power and was exiled by the Medici family. While he was exiled, he wrote The Prince to inform other leaders how to maintain power unlike himself. In his signature book, Machiavelli explained how a leader must always have war on his mind, never be hated, and be surrounded by truthful ministers. Leaders who shared a similar mentality as Machiavelli are Hongwu and Suleyman because of his harshness with government officials, and him being a patron of the arts, respectively.

In The Prince, Machiavelli explains what a good and successful prince should be like. He advocates a strong, cutthroat authority figure and encourages the winning of power by any means necessary. The main theme in The Prince is that mob rule is dangerous, for people know only what is good for themselves and not what is good for the whole. The common people, in Machiavelli’s view, “are ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers, they shun danger and are greedy for profit; while you treat them well, they are yours”. He believes that these commoners should be

In The Prince, Machiavelli takes a humanistic approach to governing. In Chapter I, he discusses the maintenance of power and rule within the republics and principalities. Principalities, he explains, are hereditary, passed from one generation to the next or they are newly formed (Machiavelli). Conversely, the English rulers of the

There are many factors that can impact an author's writing which range from ethnical, political climate, social status and current events. Understanding the context behind the piece can help the reader achieve the greater meaning lying within the piece. One such example of this is found within The Prince, an advisory work completed by Niccolo Machiavelli. With the intention of bettering his country, this advisory work provided the high nobility of Italy a take on rule that would allow one to effectively control and gain the respect of his subjects through means that we would claim to be questionable and dictatorial. Another piece that has been affected by setting is Dante’s Inferno. Following the journey of a pilgrim’s descent into the underworld,

The Prince is essentially a guide book on how to acquire and maintain political power. We can think of it as a collection of rules and methods to achieve a level of superior authority. Its main focus is that the ends—no matter how immoral—justify the means for preserving political authority. While some may agree with this mindset of thinking many today dismiss Machiavelli as a cynic. The book shows rulers how it is that they should act to survive in the real world to maintain authority. While Niccolo Machiavelli’s ideas can be radical, they helped to spark a revolution in political philosophy. Although his ideas might have not been completely original, they were very different and unheard of at the time, The Prince, was published. Machiavelli uses many methods to convey his messages including biblical comparisons and of course metaphors. This character can be viewed in several manners. He is almighty and powerful, stopping at nothing to achieve his goals or have his ways. While this quality does qualify him to be a might leader it also raises the question of immorality. How far will one go to maintain order? Would you stop at nothing to achieve this task? Machiavelli shows this by saying, “it is

Throughout Machiavelli's career, he was exposed to a variety of politics; politics of the church, of the Medici family, and politics to stay alive. He had to leave Florence and retire to his country home in San Casciano in order to save his life for his conspiring with the Boscoli-Capponi anti Medicean plot, and recognizing that military (Ruffo-Fiore, Silvia p.v). Machiavelli's intentions were always in favor of uniting Italy, but his ideas and actions weren't always seen in that light.

Niccolo’ Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469 and died in 1527. Although we do not know much about his early life, we know that he was educated according to the humanist ideals of the Renaissance. He was trained at an early age by a latin teacher named Paolo da Ronciglione. He spent his youth in the

His immersion into foreign culture and exposure to princes dissimilar to his own, namely the Louis XII and Cesare Borgia, began with a diplomatic mission to France in 1500. It was before the French court at Nevers that Machiavelli was fundamentally astounded and soon became envious of the strong and central French government because he believed it to have more power than Florentine republics, which had been modeled after classical republics such as ancient Rome.11 Upon his return from France, Florence mandated that Machiavelli control the state’s affairs with Cesare Borgia, Pope Alexander VI’s illegitimate son, who had had attempted to unite the Italian City Stat as part of his regime from 1492 to 1503 during the Italian Wars.12 Despite Borgia’s widespread hatred, Machiavelli noticed that he possessed many qualities of what he believed to be an ideal prince, such as utilizing Catholic justification under God and the devastation of the

Machiavelli as well as other humanist before him and during his time have all been known to have addressed how the ideal prince should rule his kingdom. Machiavelli apart from the others wanted his writing to be unique in its approach even though he was addressing the typical questions that other humanist had addressed before him. Machiavelli claimed to treat politics as politics should be treated and refrained from putting a “silver lining” if you will, over the problems that politics presents(pg. xxii). By doing this the typical topic of human nature, purpose of government and virtuous life were very straight forward and he thrived on this point “Many have dreamed up republics and principalities which have never in truth been

There were many things that went into the influence of the Renaissance, but none outweighed the impact of literature. Two of the most influential works of this time period were Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince and Francesco Petrarch’s Selections from the Canzoniere. Both of these works in their own way not only reflect, but also shape the views of Renaissance Humanism.

"Machiavelli identifies the interests of the prince with the interests of the state." He felt that it was human nature to be selfish, opportunistic, cynical, dishonest, and gullible, which in essence, can be true. The state of nature was one of conflict; but conflict, Machiavelli reasoned, could be beneficial under the organization of a ruler. Machiavelli did not see all men as equal. He felt that some men were better suited to rule than others. I believe that this is true in almost any government. However, man in general, was corrupt -- always in search of more power. He felt that because of this corruptness, an absolute monarch was necessary to insure stability. Machiavelli outlined what characteristics this absolute ruler should have in The Prince. One example of this can be seen in his writings concerning morality. He saw the Judeo-Christian values as faulty in the state's success. "Such visionary expectations, he held, bring the state to ruin, for we do not live in the world of the "ought," the fanciful utopia, but in the world of "is". The prince's role was not to promote virtue, but to insure security. He reasoned that the Judeo-Christian values would make a ruler week if he actually possessed them, but that they could be useful in dealing with the citizens if the prince seemed to have these qualities. Another example of Machiavelli's ideal characteristics of a prince

Machiavelli goes on in Chapters Fifteen through Twenty Three to discuss his advice to the reader in the ideal behavior and characteristics of a prince. He mentions that doing good would only lead to the ruin of a prince’s kingdom. He claims that a prince should be stingy and cruel as opposed to generous and merciful. He then, of course, adds in examples of successful rulers who were both moral and immoral alike. A prince should break promises more than he keeps them, according to the author. He also suggests that, while behaving in the aforementioned ways, a prince should do his best to avoid being despised by leaving his subjects’ land and women alone and by undertaking great projects to boost his reputation. As suggested at the beginning of Chapter Nineteen, a prince should not be “fickle, frivolous, effeminate, cowardly, [or] irresolute,” (70). ¬¬¬He should also choose wise, as opposed to flattering, advisors.

Relying on the needs of the society of that time, Machiavelli comes to the conclusion that the most important task is the formation of a single Italian state (Machiavelli 15). Developing his thoughts, the author comes to the following inference: only a prince can become a leader capable of leading people and building a unified state. It is not a concrete historical personality but someone abstract, symbolic, possessing such qualities that in the aggregate are inaccessible to any living ruler. That is why Machiavelli devotes most of his research to the issue of what qualities should the prince possess to fulfill the historical task of developing a new state. The written work is constructed strictly logically and objectively. Even though the image of an ideal prince is abstract, Machiavelli argues that he should be ruthless, deceiving, and selfish.

Machiavelli’s father provided him with a rather sufficient education in religion, classics, and politics. His father loved books. In fact, they had a library where he collected works by Greek and Roman philosophers such as Cicero and Aristotle (Wagner 17). He also collected major studies of Italian history. The books that his father collected provided Niccoló with a foundation of knowledge about the ideas of noble Greek and Roman thinkers (Wagner 17). These books would also help shape Niccoló’s own writings decades later. When Machiavelli grew a little older, he studied at The Studio, which was essentially a school. The Studio gave Machiavelli a solid grounding in rhetoric, grammar, poetry, history, and moral philosophy (King 7). Three days after his 17th birthday, Machiavelli began learning the elements of Latin under the Supervision of a local teacher known as Maestro Matteo, who conducted lessons from a house near the Ponte Santa Trinitia (King 6).