Power In The Prince By Machiavelli

The concept of a ruler doing evil in order to maintain his kingdom is well displayed by him. He obtained his princedom by wiping out disloyal troops, conquest foreign lands, and created a loyal army. While reading chapter fifteen of The Prince, Machiavelli expresses why it is necessary that a Prince should know both virtues and vices. The Prince needs to know when to use either one to “bring him security and prosperity” (The Prince 73). Although a Prince would be praiseworthy to show all of the good qualities Machiavelli lists, it is hard to obtain all of them at once, and because of that, “it is necessary for him to be sufficiently prudent…” (The Prince 72.) Machiavelli also states that a Prince has to know how to make use of his evil depending on the situation and according to

A prince has plenty to worry about during times of war and everyone is out to get you so you must be greedy and heinous in times of war. The prince declares that the nation state comes first before individuals.

Machiavelli holds the ideal king or prince as a conqueror to tramp on the powerful and ensure that invaders never build a stronghold in his areas of interest. Example, Machiavelli criticizes King Louis the

In The Prince, Machiavelli’s primary focus is on how a prince should act when exercising his political power. Machiavelli argues that a prince should first separate his public and private life. Therefore, a prince must be willing to deceive his people in thinking he is the best suited leader. Although a prince may need to act immoral at times, he must not abuse his power. A prince must only practice acts of manipulation, coercion, and deceit, to protect his power.

Machiavelli brought up many controversial and untraditional points regarding what a kingdom or prince was allowed to do to maintain power. The most extreme, being that the prince wasn't held to any moral code in the practice of maintaining power. A prince must be prepared to ward off any conflicting power even if it means breaking traditional moral codes. Other powers, Machiavelli believed, wouldn't be so kind in combat and a prince must fight back with equal or greater force. Another point is that it's better to be feared than loved. Machiavelli believed that love didn't

Niccolo Machiavelli’s most famous book, The Prince, contains the most valid information for a prince, a president, and even a king, to keep hold of their own power. Machiavelli tells about the importance and power of political action, his opinions, and most of all philosophy at it’s finest. Throughout the twenty-six chapters of this book he describes the bold, brave, practical, and powerful prince and how the prince’s life should be lived. Machiavelli’s view of human nature is used as justification for his political advice to princes. Niccolo Machiavelli was very intelligent, motivated, and dedicated while writing this book, he attempts to inform princes how to come to power by being powerful; he determines if nature and the environment a prince lives in is the cause of their failure and success.

In the sixteenth century, barbarians from France, Spain, and Germany constantly fought for power in Italy, a country already fractured into quarrelling city-states. During this time, the exiled diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a guide for Lorenzo di Piero De’ Medici, Italy’s chosen ‘deliverer,’ in the hopes of being welcomed back into society. Throughout his guide, Machiavelli created the image of an ideal leader, shaped by the defeats and accomplishments of previous rulers. To sustain one’s rule successfully, Machiavelli believed that a leader needed the wisdom and prudence to act appropriately in difficult situations, as well as harbor minimal dependence on others for strength; a leader, most of all, was capable of facing

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.

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.

Plato has also mentions how the soul is made up of three important parts. The first one is the capacity for reasoning, according to Plato the “rational” part of the soul is designed to help an individual to seek to make rational decisions, which is an important element found in guardians. The second element is “courage” which is what is presented when one acts in the best interest of the state to protect the state. The third element is “temperance” which is “unlike courage and wisdom,” it has the ability to “produce harmony of the weaker and the strong and the middle class,” (pg.69) which is discovered in the producers of the social class because they have the ability to be the middle ground and maintain a sustained lifestyle by producing

The perceived level of tolerance a prince reveals dictates the judgement and treatment he will receive during his rule. It should be a rulers first priority to protect his kingdom. Therefore, entertaining a potential “bad” or self-interested characteristic is sometimes necessary to reach such an end. However, it should be noted that these vices are truly evil if they endanger the kingdom or threaten the people in too negative a way. A ruler must understand how these negative characteristics are employed in the proper interests of the state while simultaneously not being influenced by the judgement of his fellow man. A strong ruler will recognize how to employ his power and authority in a positive form not only improving the well-being of the society, but also expanding his own knowledge of the power of good and evil and the responsibility that comes with this

The construction of an ideal ruler is a simple task. An individual simply needs to choose characteristics and traits of their ruler to possess. However, reality is immensely different from these hypothetical models for a ruler, and require alternative criteria for a successful leader. In Petrarch’s Letters of Old Age, his description of a ruler falls in the theoretical category because it is the formation of a picturesque ruler, but this ruler is unattainable because of chance and uncertainty in the real world. In Machiavelli’s The Prince, he illustrates many different characteristics that could potentially lead to success as a ruler, but his work differs from Petrarch because Petrarch’s advice tended to be morally good, while Machiavelli promotes

A prince provided a controlled manner of governing and was typically considered just, yet wise. “A prince must have no other objective... but that of war, its methods and its discipline, for that is the only art expected of a ruler” (Machiavelli 53-54). Machiavelli felt a prince should have been

Nowadays, it is politically impossible to commit to paper a "training guide" for leaders. There are innumerable detractors to any possible stance or strategy a leader might adopt. As a result of this, all "training" must take place behind closed doors, far from the prying eyes and ears of the news media or the public. But this has not always been the case.