Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince

From the 14th century into the 17th century of European history, a cultural revolution took place. The renaissance came to Europe and pushed out old middle age ideals and brought in new humanistic ones. The renaissance brought new cultural ideas, new ways of learning, new art, and new standards of how to rule a Kingdom. Kingdoms were coming and going fast at this time, rulers were slipping under the pressures of expanding rule and it seemed that a new kingdoms were continuously being conquered. The guidelines set up in Machiavelli’s The Prince, help to define what makes up a good and bad leader in terms of the new Renaissance ideals.

Niccolo Machiavelli’s book “The Prince” speaks about what a great ruler should possess in order to have the loyalty and unity of his people. That to be a great Prince your people must see you as compassionate but behind the curtain you may act as your true self, even if that self is cruel. As long your subjects see you as a compassionate ruler, your rule will be a great one and known even after death.

Niccolò Machiavelli, established himself as a prominent Renaissance figure when his book The Prince, shared his political philosophies on how to gain and retain power. The “Princely Virtues” were a set of standards that discussed what he considered to be good and bad characteristics of a ruler. Ultimately, Machiavelli explained that morals were not always required to play a part in politics, which in contrast opposed many principles established by his predecessors. Some of the listed characteristics contest his views, meanwhile others disagree. According to Machiavelli’s opinions, always acting moral will ruin a person as the number of immoral people in the world outweigh the good. Machiavelli writes “Other things seem to be vices, yet if put into practice will bring the prince security and well-being,” (186). In this case, if a ruler has the desire to keep his status, he must learn not to be virtuous when it is required. From Machiavelli’s notion, four “positive” attributes a ruler should acquire are cruelty rather than compassion, egoism instead of philanthropy, greediness versus being open-handed, and finally, inflexibility in preference to being easy to deal with. Machiavelli stands by these rules, as he knows a feared leader is more beneficial than a beloved leader. For example, a compassionate, philanthropic leader implies generosity to the people. If the

Machiavelli’s opinion is that being feared is better than being loved since individuals can more easily break the bond of love whereas fear “is supported by the dread of pain”

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.

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 Oxford Dictionary defines the term “Machiavellian” as someone who is cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, especially in politics or in advancing one’s career. These principles, as well as others, were established in Niccolo Machiavelli’s book, The Prince. The Prince dwelves on what a person needs to do to obtain and maintain power in a principality. Although it was written nearly 500 years ago, it has influenced countless rulers over time. A great example of one of these rulers is Joseph Stalin, dictator of the U.S.S.R (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) from 1929 - 1953.

In Niccolo Machiavelli’s book The Prince, Machiavelli portrays many qualities that a leader should have. Machiavelli also describes how a leader should work. Adolf Hitler portrays all of the qualities of what Machiavelli believed a leader should have. Adolf Hitler proves that Machiavelli’s advice to leaders is still relevant today.

Machiavelli then moves to the final section of The Prince where he writes about prudence and change around Italy at that time. He starts with stating that there are many princes around Italy that simply lost their states. Machiavelli goes on to state that the reason for this is not because of bad luck or fortune but simply because their power got to their heads, they thought they were invincible, and in the end they found out that they weren’t and crumbled along with their states. Machiavelli then writes that fortune is two ways. Part of it is influenced by actions and the reactions to certain scenarios. The other part is the “sweet” part of fortune that many people believe that they have no control over where in reality they do. Basically

On the surface, Machiavelli's The Prince teaches leaders how to best acquire and maintain power. Machiavelli said that his purpose of writing is to tell the "real truth of the matter". The truth according to Machiavelli is that people who are seldom are what they appear to be and that people who focus on ideals and principles or what ought to be done will end up ruined. Some people thought that Machiavelli's intentions was to expose how autocratic leaders have truly exercised their power throughout history. Some even say that he wrote The Prince to secure a government position from Lorenzo de' Medici, who was the ruler of Florence. Others believed that he meant it as a warning to Florentines to look out for tyrants like Medicis. Machiavelli

Niccolo Machiavelli’s advice towards leaders in his book The Prince is both relevant and not relevant today in many ways. The European leader that I have chosen to prove what advice Machiavelli gave in The Prince is relevant and what is not, is Edward Heath. Some of Edwards work relates to the advice given by Machiavelli while many of it is the pure opposite of Machiavelli’s advice.

Niccolo Machiavelli lived during a time where Christian doctrine and consequent conceptions of morality reigned supreme. Thus, in The Prince, he seeks to redefine the most basic human instinct as that of acquisition. This restructures or perhaps reasserts society as comprised of the haves and have nots; the coveted possession is not necessarily wealth but ambition to rule. In this sense, he orients the world around the eponymous Machiavellian prince: someone who, very simply, is willing to do what it takes to uphold his acquisition. By doing so, he rejects the notion of Christian virtue as singular focus on the salvation of the soul. Luther in “Freedom of a Christian,” for example, espouses that a virtuous man should not concern himself with

Principalities, to the general population, seem unintelligent and inefficient. However, Niccolò Machiavelli, a Renaissance philosopher, thought it could be possible to create a functional principality under the right guidance and influence. He proved he differed from philosophers and political theorists of his time with the novel, The Prince. In The Prince, Machiavelli states his opinion on how principalities should be obtained and managed through the use historical references and scenarios. At the time of his work, Machiavelli ideas were radical and a first of their kind. Machiavelli had many interesting views such as his opinions on justice, morals, and human nature. He believed justice was non-existing, morals shouldn’t play a role in a

Jaehun Lee 2/14/18 Versatility: What Makes a Truly Great Leader While Machiavelli advises a ruler to instill fear in his people in order to best consolidate his power, I argue that the best way to live a political life depends largely on what phase of the state-building process his state is in. Machiavelli’s call for vigilance and distrust may be valuable to a prince and the state he governs when working to establish and secure a state’s political legitimacy, but toxic in the long run, as it hurts the society he attempts to better. Machiavelli argues that while the prince may superficially have allies and advisors, he must remain alone and independent at heart. This implies that Machiavelli wants the prince to harbor a fundamental distrust

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