Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince

Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince give the world an insight on his thought about those who rule, virtue, military power, and human nature. He elaborates on his ideal prince who must take power, but also maintain power. The Prince is extremely relevant in modern society and often looked upon as the beginning of modern political thinking. Machiavelli gives this prince an outline of the tools needed to maintain power and reinforces these ideas by giving examples of other leader’s successes and failures. Machiavelli believes that the prince must complete understand the balance between war and government. Understanding this balance and being fluent in both politics and war is crucial for maintaining power. Politicians today still use some of the tactics given by

Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince was met with much criticism after its publication over five hundred years ago. It was written to guide leaders for a republican form of government. The latter chapters describe the qualities of the ideal leader, or prince, particularly those concerning morals and perception by the public. Machiavelli prioritizes the upholding and maintaining of the government and sacrifices traditional morals. Because of his theory of the qualities a prince should exhibit, he was condemned as evil by many. Machiavelli’s theory that a prince should be stingy, feared, and deceitful is fitting for a modern republican government.

Machiavelli’s The Prince is just as applicable to the lives of leaders in the 1500’s as it is for leaders in modern times. Although any person who is in a position of authority might not say that they use Machiavellian tactics. Through their actions it is evident that the teachings of The Prince are still used on a global scale. Concepts such as safeguarding the state, and becoming wealthy, are just a few of the concepts that are beneficial to a strong government and reflected in current political situations at home and abroad.

In 1512, the Medici family rose to power once again in Florence Italy. Once in power they became privy to internal plots against the Medici family, and despite his innocence, they exiled Niccolo Machiavelli. A year after his exile, in 1513, he wrote a political treatise named The Prince. Written for the current ruler of the Medici family, Lorenzo de’ Medici, the contents of this political insight was all about what makes a good prince. The reason for why this piece was created is still debated though; many are unsure whether it is a political satire, or if it was to try to get into good graces with the family that had exiled him, or just an example of what people thought made a good leader at that time.

Machiavelli’s The Prince talks about many issues of modern political philosophy, it was written to help rulers stay in power. His common themes are ruling through fear, being as powerful as a lion and as intelligent as a fox, and to maintain the state at all costs. One of the common discussions about his writings is what he means by “one must learn how to not be good.” For what reason should a ruler learn to not be good? He claims that being good and continuing to be good could only make a ruler more weak. He continues to list good and bad qualities of a ruler and claiming that every ruler will have at least one of the bad qualities but the way he conquers his unpraised attribute is most important. A ruler should hide his flaws so that he only

Machiavelli’s work The Prince is, evidently, a bit dated. However, the points that it expresses maintain their significance, even when monarchies are no longer the primary form of government. The Prince is relevant to contemporary society in today’s age as it relates to contemporary elements such as North Korea, World War II, and more.

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.

In Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics", the concept of knowledge is expressed by the author as truth of the soul which guides one to find the virtuous middle ground between excess and defect (Aristotle, Pg. 126-128). This aspiration to intellectual virtue is a political one because it is an attempt at doing the right thing and achieving the "good". Within Book VI, Aristotle identifies three different kinds of knowledge: scientific, craft and practical (Aristotle, Pg. 128). Scientific knowledge, as described by Aristotle, is comprised of necessarily eternal truths which are "ungenerated and imperishable" (Aristotle, Pg. 129). Knowledge of science, therefore, must be concerned with the unchanging truths of the natural world. Craft or the intellectual

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

Adolf Hitler followed Machiavelli’s words, “I’m not interested in preserving status quo; I want to overthrow it” . Hitler started to become loved when he started to make speeches in beer halls. Hitler began to become feared when he finally gained power in 1933. As he gained power and instilled fear into people, he started to gain his nation’s respect. Following the nazi party being declared the only legal party in Germany, Hitler started killing and would not stop. Not only would he not stop killing people, he started invading other countries instilling fear amongst most countries in Europe.

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.

Machiavelli’s The Prince, guided me to become a better leader. Some consider him as an opportunist or manipulative, while others like me see him as a great influence in the history of politics. Moreover, I learned four leadership lessons from his book and applied them to my life. I chose these lessons because I feel that they are ultimately important for anyone ruling a country or trying to become a successful leader. For instance, to be feared is key to ruling, princes must avoid making themselves hated by powerful people, choose wise advisors, and read to become wiser.

Machiavelli was a renowned author of political science. In the book The Prince, he argues that there is no link between the practice of politics and morality. According to his school of thought, bad faith, hypocrisy, falsehood, murder, violence and even duplicity are all acceptable ways to achieve political ambitions. In short, when it comes to political affairs, the ends justify the means. He was of the opinion that what could be seen as good in one situation could be considered evil in another situation. However, he did not deny that the old rule of private morality exists. Machiavelli acknowledges that in most instances, these morals dictate the relationships between individuals, however, he reasons that this is not applicable with Princes.

During the Italian Renaissance, two prominent themes emerged which separated it from the Middle Ages: individualism and humanism. Individualism drove many to want to become recognized as unique, whereas humanism fueled a critical attitude, caused people to question everything around them and focus on the corporeal versus the spiritual. Niccolò Machiavelli, an Italian Renaissance writer, demonstrated a spirit of individualism and humanism through his handbook, The Prince. His views on how to gain and maintain political power became well known, as his ruthless and realistic views mirrored the actions of famous ruling families such as the Medicis. The ideology of his book exemplified the Renaissance movement as seen through Machiavelli’s