Socrates vs. Machiavelli: Complete Enemies Within many Political Science classes the students study many works by political philosophers of the past. Whether the students are studying these pieces to learn from past mistakes or to apply this wisdom to the world they live in, these students have many take aways from these brilliant pieces. Two pieces of work that have been studied in depth are Machiavelli’s The Prince and The Last Days of Socrates by Plato. Within The Prince , Machiavelli depicts the qualities needed for a “perfect” prince, while he touching on the notion that deceitfulness and lying while ruling is okay, if it makes the state as powerful as can be. However in Plato’s work, Socrates philosophy is quite the opposite. Socrates believes in honesty, following the rules, and making the state the most powerful through politics instead of violence. As these two works both try to describe the way to achieve an ultimately perfect society they are seen to differ one another greatly. Socrates would view Machiavelli’s concept of The Prince in a dishonest and deceitful light and would not be supportive of the political system in which said Prince would run. A major difference between these two political philosophers is the idea of deceit. Machiavelli explains deceit by a political leader should be tolerated as long as it is helping to strengthen its political system. He values how one looks on the outside compared to what they are actually doing to their people. As
18). A true prince in Machiavelli’s eyes is someone that the nobles, people, army, and neighboring states will be dependent on. To Machiavelli humans are by nature power hungry and greedy and that as long as there is dependence on the prince whether it is due to heredity, fear, or a variety of other factors, he will remain in power.
While Socrates and Machiavelli lived over 1900 years apart, the dilemmas their societies faced draw many parallels. In Machiavelli’s “The Prince”, he demonstrates a wide-ranging set of rules and principles to be followed by a leader to ensure the steady maintenance of authority and stability in a state or principality. Not only would Socrates be opposed to many of the espoused views in “The Prince” on what creates a successful ruler, thereby society, but had he lived in Machiavelli’s “ideal” state, he would openly question and rebel against the cogs that maintain its stability, possibly even advocating its upheaval. Socrates would most ardently disagree with Machiavelli’s depiction of the supremacy of the prince and state over its
In the modern world, we strive to reach our own “Utopia”, but this is just an unattainable ideal. Thomas More’s “Utopia” is the pinnacle world where you are equal by choice, or by force. This ideal society is extremely communal were nobody has want and nothing is closed off to any body. The people in Utopia criticize and ridicule those of contemporary society, they mock their rulers who were gems and fancy clothing to show their high rankings. The Utopians theological statement regarding sins that underlie these problems, namely greed and pride- sins against the social order. Modern day needs more equality among diversities, the segregations and prejudices we live with sour the world and make it prone to violent outbreaks.
Machiavelli’s interpretation of human nature was greatly shaped by his belief in God. In his writings, Machiavelli conceives that humans were given free will by God, and the choices made with such freedom established the innate flaws in humans. Based on that, he attributes the successes and failure of princes to their intrinsic weaknesses, and directs his writing towards those faults. His works are rooted in how personal attributes tend to affect the decisions one makes and focuses on the singular commanding force of power. Fixating on how the prince needs to draw people’s support, Machiavelli emphasizes the importance of doing what is best for the greater good. He proposed that working toward a selfish goal, instead of striving towards a better state, should warrant punishment. Machiavelli is a practical person and always thought of pragmatic ways to approach situations, applying to his notions regarding politics and
Machiavelli is most famous for his statement that morals and ethics have absolutely no association to the process of gaining, expanding, and retaining power. In the Machiavellian concept, “Power is the end of politics, goodness thus coincides with efficiency; and inefficient means bad (Ebenstein, 2000: 286).” This film is filled to the brim with this kind of philosophy. Let’s take for example
Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince is one of the most respected documents in existence regarding power, and for good
treatise that debates the politics and strategies of an effective rule of a principality. Machiavelli
In the Prince, Machiavelli argues that the idea of truth in the government is only a method to manipulate the unsuspecting public. A leader does not need to be truthful as long as the public believes he is. Politics during Machiavelli’s time was much harsher than that of Socrates and his work reflects his cynical history. While Socrates experienced a major change in his home government during his lifetime, Machiavelli witnessed multiple periods of governmental turmoil.
It is essential prior to judgement on whether Machiavelli is a political amoralist or not to take into account The Discourses and the essence of their meaning. The Prince alone I grant can be mistaken for a how-to-be-a tyrant handbook with it’s absolute theories and some what lack of civility, where “the end justifies the means';. But it’s intention is assuming the political leader is already of moral standing and possess such qualities of integrity and virtue to be expected of one in the position of leadership. “Everybody sees what you appear to be,few feel what you are,and those few will not dare to oppose themselves to the many,who have the majesty of the state to defend them;and in the actions of men,and especially of princes,from which there is no appeal, the end justifies the means'; “Thus it is well to seem merciful,faithful humane,sincere,religious and also to be so.'; Effectively what seems as ruling with an iron fist is best expressed in terms of need. The 16th Century political unrest Machiavelli is influenced by would best be unified by such absolute power due to it’s degradation and lack of structure. So therefore it would not be seen as immoral with respect to it’s time. And looking at it from a wider more advanced perspective although the technique may appear rigid if it creates the desired unification
Machiavelli has long been required reading for everyone intrested in politics and power. In The Prince Niccolo M
One of the three major themes of the Prince would be Hatred. For a prince to remain in power he would have to avoid the hatred of all the people. It wasn’t necessary for a prince to be loved by his people but it’s even better that he is feared by his people, but in fact if a prince is feared by his people it could be the cause of his downfall.
For most citizen’s well known by the name, Machiavelli produces a resemblance of brutality and raw reckoning. The commonplace of the Prince, Machiavelli’s most established work, is seen as lectures to dictators and unrighteous people searching to increase and keep power. Merriam-Webster determines Machiavellian as “ using clever lies and tricks in order to get or achieve something: clever and dishonest.” Machiavellian foreign affairs were more distinctly described by Harvey Mansfield in the opening to his explanation of the Prince where he wrote: “ The essence of this politics is that you can get away with murder: that no divine sanction, or degradation of the soul, a twinge of conscience will come to punish you.”
Niccolo Machiavelli was the first to clearly decipher politics from ethics by studying politics in such depth and thought. He created the basis of what politics should be and how they are runned for today. His book The Prince is primarily a handbook for all rulers to follow to be the most successful in their reign. His book is considered political realism which means he speaks about only the truth of politics, so it can be used for the practice of governing. Machiavelli’s book is the handbook for obtaining and maintaining power even for today’s modern politics.
The Prince is a novel written in 1513 by Niccolo Machiavelli. This book contains 26 chapters, focusing on acquiring and maintaining political power. In other words, it could be seen as the “do’s and don’ts” of the political world. In Chapters One through Eleven, the author discusses the different
an ideal prince — he would find it comparatively lacking in windows for dissent. But