Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince

Trying not to overstep the boundaries of the citizens to get kicked out of power or not doing enough that they replace you. With the power gained from leading it is expected that other princes will try to take power away so the only way to prevent this from happening is to make alliances and maintaining a strong military. Later on, in the novel Machiavelli goes on to focus on what qualities a prince should have and how virtu plays a role in making a proper prince. Although a short novel, it is Machiavelli’s most widely known work and is responsible for creating a negative view on rulers/politicians and also making it seem like anything you do, even immoral, is justifiable if the end goal is worth it. Machiavelli writes “He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation” showing that the use of immoral means is justifiable when the end goal is survival and glory. This book follows the ideals of Italian humanism from the author being from Florence, the heart of the renaissance, dedicating the novel to Lorenzo de’ Medici, an example of a man who invested a lot in helping people learn about philosophy and such subjects to become better humanists.

In the text The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli works to create a political system that recognizes failures in human nature and attempts to manipulate them in creating stability. Machiavelli proposes a concept of the Prince and the

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

Niccolo Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469, in Florence, Italy. The Prince was written in 1513 but was published five years after Machiavelli’s death in 1527. Machiavelli wrote the Prince as advice to Lorenzo de’ Medici and as a plea for his position back in the Medici Florentine government. Machiavelli gives great advice on what a Prince should do in order to keep a country under his rule, but his main ideas are that a Prince should not be liked or loved by his people but feared and never hated and that a ruler should be willing to do everything in his powers to keep his kingdom stable, even if that means he needs to lie and get a little violent. When reading The Prince readers can see the ways it is reflected in today’s modern society.

Machiavelli did not seek to change the worldview of leadership when he composed The Prince in 1513. However, The Prince later became widely praised and criticized for its ruthless and immoral tactics for a ruler to gain and hold power. Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a guide to gain power; he wrote it in a blunt way without flowery language so that anyone who read the book would understand exactly what was required to gain and hold absolute power. One of the main focuses of the book is an explanation of the characteristics of an ideal prince and how those defined traits can help one hold and maintain power.

The prince was written at a time when Italy was in chaos, in the Prince Machiavelli offers advice on how to an effective and successful ruler. in Machiavelli’s the prince he assumes that all men are bad egotistical, motivated by greed, and cowardly and can’t be trusted. Doing the righteous thing as a ruler according to moral codes, puts you at a disadvantage, people’s moral concerns are easily changed to suit their own needs. According to Machiavelli on the Prince, man will forgive you for killing his father, but do not touch his property, this is sacred “and above all others he must keep his hands off the property of others, because men more quickly forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony”. REF HERE. FOR MACHIAVELLI

The Prince, by Niccoló Machiavelli, is a how to rule guide for sovereigns. It was written in 1513 but published only in 1532, nearly five years after Machiavelli’s death. The book was composed to tell sovereigns how to rule, but some scholars say it is more on how not to rule. From how to act as a prince to how not to attack in war, Machiavelli discusses it all. He was a regular citizen in Florence, but claimed he knew more about the art of ruling than princes did, he watched Italy rise and fall and decided to write The Prince in hopes that Lorenzo de Medici, the prince at the time, would read it and put it to use. Machiavelli claimed that if a prince were to read his book and follow his guidance, he would have no problem ruling and go down

Machiavelli explains on how fortune is a lady's furthermore how fortune can take control. I observed his hypothesis to be valid. Ladies are fortunes men will never get it. Fortune is something men will never love effectively. In today's general public, men disregard how exceptionally they ought to treat a lady. No men open entryways, give some assistance, or ask how their day have been. Numerous individuals trust fortune controls everything, so they let it. As years passed by, men have slacked off the admiration for ladies and their fortune. In the Machiavelli determination of The Prince, he appears to have it all made sense of.

During Niccolo Machiavelli’s time, Italy was the epitome of political conflict. Machiavelli witnessed an array political change from the expulsion of the Medici family to the rise of Girolamo Savanorola. He even served as a diplomat to Pope Julius, but when the Medici family regained control of Florence, Machiavelli was dismissed from office and accused of participating in a conspiracy. As a result, he was held in jail for three weeks and was tortured brutally. After his release, Machiavelli began writing The Prince, a book that outlines in a very straightforward and logical manner how a prince should procure and maintain his princedom. Though he is seemingly expressing his thoughts about how men should approach their journey to princedom in his book, The Prince, there is an underlying cynical discernment about the dark shadow of human nature, perhaps a perception that stemmed from Machiavelli’s excruciating time in prison. To Machiavelli, the real truth is that men are simply selfish individuals who are almost animal-like in their actions and will spare no humanity if it means becoming a prince and successfully keeping their princedom. He accepts this truth and proceeds by writing a very systematic and binary how-to manual that describes every decision a prince can make and its outcome. In every chapter, Machiavelli outlines another aspect of ruling a princedom and in every chapter, Machiavelli expresses another cynical attitude toward human nature.

In this paper, I will examine Niccolo Machiavelli’s claims in The Prince that dictatorial power drives most princes. Machiavelli discusses the differences between shared and dictatorial power. The dominant power is to never be conquered, even with the possibility for people to attain greater status. In The Prince, Machiavelli discusses two groups of people: the public and the upper class. This paper will uncover more of how Machiavelli creates the distinctions between powers.

Composed nearly 500 years ago, Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince" presents another perspective on the meaning of virtue. Machiavelli's definition contended against the idea presented by the Catholic Church. Machiavelli did not force any opinions of his own, somewhat he composed from his experience and whatever theory that prompts activities which created successful results in the political scene of Italy and different nations. While Machiavelli continues to be scrutinized for his thoughts, in all actuality consciously or unconsciously one must understand that humankind is, for the most part, a self-serving species in which thinking only for oneself grants a strategic advantage to the means which goals and tasks are completed. On matters of

"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

Niccolo Machiavelli is a very pragmatic political theorist. His political theories are directly related to the current bad state of affairs in Italy that is in dire need of a new ruler to help bring order to the country. Some of his philosophies may sound extreme and many people may call him evil, but the truth is that Niccolo Machiavelli’s writings are only aimed at fixing the current corruptions and cruelties that filled the Italian community, and has written what he believed to be the most practical and efficient way to deal with it. Three points that Machiavelli illustrates in his book The Prince is first, that “it is better to be feared then loved,”# the second

504 years ago, Niccolo Machiavelli completed his magnum opus The Prince, a work that discarded the political philosophies of the time and introduced a gritty, realistic method to ruling over a body of people. Now, centuries later, politicians and thinkers still discuss this writing in an attempt to find solutions to national issues. So why do we still ponder a piece of literature that was written in a foreign place and time as if it is universally true? In short, it is because Machiavelli was right. He was right to believe that for a ruler in his time to maintain his position of power, he must act immorally on occasion. However, the flaw in our constant application of The Prince in modern America is that the ultimate goal of a ruler is no longer to stay in power as long as possible. Thus, Machiavelli’s method is important to understand if one wants to study other societies or other time periods, but it should not be used to make sense of current politics in America, because our society is built to change.

Niccolo Machiavelli is treated as “one of the founders of philosophy of history and one of the first to create a political science based on the studying of historical actions” (“Machiavelli's The Prince”). The man lived in 15th and 16th centuries, but his political views are still appropriate for today, despite the fact his ideas were called dishonest, sinister and cunning. The Prince is one of the most famous Machiavelli's political works. It was written in 1513 and was dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici. The book is unique “not because it explains how to take control of other lands and how to control them, but because it gives advice that often disregards all moral and ethical rules” (“Machiavelli's The Prince”). To comment this issue