Machiavelli's Ideas

The Church accused Niccolo Machiavelli of being Satan for writing his book The Prince. Machiavelli completed The Prince in 1513. He wrote it as a gift to Lorenzo Medici, called the Magnificent, ruler of Florence. The political views Machiavelli expressed in his book went against the theology of the Church, specifically the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes.

In The Prince, Machiavelli uses many examples of battles and people to emphasize and illustrate his points. He exalts some as examples of great leadership, and condemns others for their mistakes and imperfections. Machiavelli, in the Prince, praises Philip of Macedon for fighting to hold onto his country, and for holding onto most of his kingdom even after surrendering a few cities to Rome. His purpose in doing this was to provide an example of a prince that did the opposite of the princes of Italy, and to further reprimand the princes of Italy for allowing their kingdom to slip through their fingers. And yet, Machiavelli only speaks on Philip’s last war, and praises only his preparedness to go to war, not mentioning the amount of power

Machiavelli first mentions Ferdinand to use him as an example of a principality that is acquired by adding it to an existing one, which is what he did when he agreed by treaty in 1500 to share the Kingdom of Naples with Louis XII and later expelled the French and joined that kingdom to Spain. (p.5) Following this, Ferdinand’s actions and his ability to maintain an excellent reputation are praised in Chapter 21. Machiavelli states that esteem is an important part of ruling and that a prince earns a reputation for greatness by doing great things. He says that Ferdinand went from being a weak king to being known as the first King of Christians, by fame and glory.

One of Machiavelli’s most well-known philosophies is that of “it is safer to be feared than loved…” (69). Idi Amin, also known as the ‘Butcher of Uganda’ for his cruelness and ruthlessness, clearly illustrates an example of this belief in practice. After seizing power by overthrowing former President Milton Obote, Idi Amin wanted to rid of any threat to his newly attained power, so he formed the Public Safety Unit (PSU) and had the organization “redouble their efforts to uncover subversives and other imagined enemies of the state.” For the people of Uganda, “fear and insecurity became a way of life… as thousands of people disappeared.”. Amin established an environment filled with fear and angst. The brutal and intimidating dictator knew that

Chapter seven in “The Prince”, written by Niccolo Machiavelli, talks about the difference between a person using virtue and fortune to maintain their power. In lecture, Professor Van Den Abbeele defined virtue as, “Whatever it takes to stay in power”. Machiavelli states that a prince who uses his own prowess, or virtue, to will be able to solidify a strong foundation and maintain his power, unlike a prince who uses fortune to rise through the ranks. In the chapter Machiavelli mentions Cesare Borgia, also known as Duke Valentino, as an example of a person gaining power through the fortune of his father, Pope Alexander VI. However, Cesare Borgia would later use his own prowess and intelligence to secure and solidify a strong foundation for him

Machiavelli's argument, that a ruler should not be inclined to carry out the actions that the people are led to believe that the ruler is carrying out, is false. If the rulers actions have no adverse affect on the public, there would be no reason to to keep these actions secret. If a ruler's actions have an adverse affect on the public, they will ultimately be revealed; the public should and will know.

but it should not be a potent part of authority. The examples I presented all showed

According to Machiavelli, there are a few situations in which a leader can take power, each with varying levels of upkeep. The first is by sheer luck or buying land, which he explains is easy to acquire but hard to maintain. In the text, Machiavelli writes, “Although, they have no difficulty on the way as they go flying along, all their difficulties arise when they have landed” (Machiavelli 28). Because the new leader has no experience or loyal army it will be extremely challenging to stay in power. On the other hand, if a state is won by the new leaders abilities and talent he will have a much easier time (Machiavelli 24). Machiavelli also mentions many times the importance of having a loyal military. Being the commander of the Army of Italy,

According to Machiavelli, virtue is hard work and sweat. Machiavelli believes that the Romans were successful at conquering states and then ruling over them by sending out colonies, allowing some identities and powers to remain in the states without sacrificing or increasing their own power, and by keeping the influence of other states out of their conquered states. Machiavelli writes that the Romans not only watched out for the struggles of the present, but they looked out for and avoided the potential struggles of the future. When Machiavelli uses the term cruelty well used he means that violence will be necessary in order to take and keep power. He writes that one should do it quickly and at one time, however, as to not draw out the violence

More than anything else we’ve read this year, Machiavelli is extremely difficult for me to respond to. I find myself agreeing with a lot of his ideas (at least I think I agree with his ideas, his writing jumbles my head around), and most of my comments come from a place of unwarranted rage. One complaint I have is that I think he goes back on his word a lot. The thing is, Machiavelli shoves so much information down your throat every sentence that everything I’ve read kind of melds together in a strange sort of limbo. For example, I’m fairly sure he talks about the importance of being kind and virtuous in the first reading we did, but in the second a lot of it is about being merciless. Maybe those were supposed to apply to different situations.

As with all philosophers of his time, Machiavelli was heavily inspired by Plato and other greek philosophers. However, while he may have been influenced by Plato, Machiavelli does not agree with many of Plato’s principles and beliefs. In short Machiavelli believed that leaders should act in ways that were best for the state or government, while Plato, on the other hand, had a contrasting belief. Plato philosophized that people should lead with moral values.

A humanist is defined as one who is concerned with the interests and welfare of humans. Niccolo’ Machiavelli can be thought of as a humanist. Although opinions on this differ greatly depending on whom you speak with. Machiavelli’s life consists of so many examples and lessons that he has learned throughout his life. Through my paper, I intend to examine his perception of morality based on his political writings and life experiences.

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.

It is fundamentally important to preface the discussion hosted in this essay by addressing ourselves to the most mundane question-why consider Machiavelli in the context of philosophy, least of all, political philosophy? This question dominates any philosophical inquiries of the Machiavelli’s political ideologies. Put differently, do the contributions by Niccolò Machiavelli to the various salient discourses in the Western thought, most notably political theory, meet the requisite standard models of academic philosophy? Machiavelli essentially seems not to consider himself a philosopher. In fact, he overtly disapproved of any philosophical inquiries into his works. In addition, his credentials do not qualify him to be properly admitted within the realm of philosophy (NeDermAN, 2002).

In the 16th century Niccolo Machiavelli presented Lorenzo de Medici with his most prized possession, “The Prince”. At this time, it was custom to present the prince with your most prized possession, in order to gain their friendship. Machiavelli spent much time studying past rulers and wrote “The Prince” in which he describes how one acquires and maintains power. At the time, The Prince was not well accepted as it went perceived to go against the Catholic Church. However, today the prince has been deemed a classic and its teachings can be applied to the business world. Many companies have applied Machiavelli’s principles, without intending to do so, and have risen to success. By following Machiavelli’s ideas that a prince must be