machiavelli the prince. machiavelli’s the prince historical overview human nature and power...

Machiavelli

The Prince

Machiavelli’s The Prince

Historical Overview Human Nature and Power Fortune & Virtue Forms of Government

I. Historical Overview

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 – 1527)

European Renaissance Declining power of

Church Advancing in Science,

Arts, Literature The Prince written in

1513 during period of political exile

Copernican Universe


Machiavelli & Florence Medici family rules

city French forces invade,

set up republican government

Machiavelli gets role in government, ends up as high civil servant, some diplomatic missions and military operations


Machiavelli & FlorenceSpanish defeat the French, and

reinstall the MediciMachiavelli is arrested, tortured, and

eventually exiled to his country home beyond the city walls

During this period (he’s in his 40s) he begins his philosophical/political writing, including The Prince


Machiavelli & FlorencePrince is dedicated to Lorenzo de

Medici, the MagnificentBut this Medici is the grandson of the

founder of the Medici dynasty, Lorenzo il Magnifico, the genuine Lorenzo the Magnificent

Machiavelli & Florence

The Prince as extended job application?

Two aims:1. Secure a government job

2. Provide recipe for stabilizing Italian city states to protect them from outside interference, whether civil or ecclesiastical

II. Human Nature and Power

“The desire to acquire is truly a very natural and common thing; and whenever men who can, do so, they are praised and not condemned; but when they cannot and want to do so just the same, herein lies the mistake and the condemnation.” (Chapter 3).


Contrast with Greeks/Aquinas Implications?

Human beings are selfish animalsNeed to construct a political life which

is based on how people actually behave, not how we want them to be

But…


Doesn’t want to reject either rational politics (the Greeks) or religious salvation (the church) out of hand

Rather, the goals of these two projects must come not from directives by external sources but through personal choices


These personal choices will only come about if and when we appreciate the factors that motivate people in making their choices

Each individual is fully responsible for his/her choices

Each of us share this responsibility since we each share the same human nature


PowerMachiavelli the first political thinker to

focus on power as positive traitSimple recognition of the fact that the

quest for power is an essential part of human nature

Why?


If we want to acquire possessions, then that implies that we also want the means to acquire those possessions

Need to recognize that for rulers the study of power is vital: how to acquire it, how to keep it, how to use it


“Many writers have imagined for themselves republics and principalities that have never been seen nor known to exist in reality; for there is such a gap between how one lives and how one ought to live that anyone who abandons what is done for what ought to be done learns his ruin rather than his preservation…” (chapter 15)


“for a man who wishes to profess goodness at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not good” (chapter 15).


Indeed, Machiavelli asserts:“For one can generally say this about men: they are ungrateful, fickle, simulators and deceivers, avoiders of danger, greedy for gain; and while you work for their good they are completely yours, offering you their blood, their property, their lives, and their sons, as I said earlier, when danger is far away; but when it comes nearer to you they turn away” (chapter XVII).


So if a Prince or ruler wants to stay in power, he must

“Learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge or not to use it according to necessity” (chapter XV)


What does this mean? Machiavelli is not advising us to

behave badly simply for the sake of being evil


Rather since we see power in political life we need to counsel rulers on how best to use it

Basic advice, don’t help others, be cruel, stingy, deceptive…

And get others to do the dirty work so you can escape blame


“You must, therefore, know that there are two means of fighting: one according to the laws, the other with force; the first way is proper to man, the second to beasts; but because the first, in many cases is not sufficient, it becomes necessary to have recourse to the second” (chapter XVIII).


fox and the lion; for the lion cannot defend itself from traps and the fox cannot protect itself from wolves. It is therefore necessary to be a fox in order to recognize the traps and a lion in order to frighten the wolves.”

“Since, then, a prince must know how to make good use of the nature of the beast, he should choose from among the beasts the


Examples? Chapter VII

• “Cesare Borgia acquired the state through the favour and help of his father, and when this no longer existed, he lost it, and this despite the fact that he did everything and used every means that a prudent and skilful man ought to use in order to root himself securely in those states that the arms and fortune of others had granted him”


Background here:Cesare’s father? Pope Alexander VI The Pope put Cesare in charge of

Florence, and issued a formal papal bull (order) authorizing him to expand the power of Florence

What were some of the means used by this “prudent” and “skilful” man?


Later in the chapter we get one example

Borgia takes over Romagna, but is meeting resistance since “it was ruled by powerless noblemen who had been quicker to despoil their subjects than to govern them, and gave them cause to disunite rather than to unite them”


He decided it was necessary to bring “peace and obedience of the law” and installed a man named Remirro de Orca, a “cruel and efficient man” to rule

Then, after the area was pacified, Borgia does the following:


“Since he knew that the severities of the past had brought about a certain amount of hate, in order to purge the minds of those people and win them over completely, he planned to demonstrate that if cruelty of any kind had come about, it did not stem from him [Borgia] but rather from the bitter nature of the minister…”


“And having found the occasion to do this, he had him placed one morning in Cesena on the piazza in two pieces with a piece of wood and a bloodstained knife alongside him.”


“The atrocity of such a spectacle left those people at one and the same time satisfied and stupefied.”


Story of Agathocles the Sicilian (chapter VIII)

Story of Oliverotto of Fermo (chapter VII)

Footnote:A year after the events described here

(1512), Cesare had Fermo strangled and the corpse displayed on the main square of Senigallia for 3 days


Conclusion?“In taking a state its conqueror should

weigh all the harmful things he must do and do them all at once so as not to have to repeat them every day, and in not repeating them to be able to make men feel secure and win them over with the benefits he bestows upon them”


Machiavelli is not counseling the need to be cruel, nor denying that cruelty is sometimes useful, but rather showing how to limit its worst effects

The primary requirement for selfish individuals seeking personal goals is to enter into reciprocal relationships where each needs power or influence over the behavior of others


In entering these relationships, all are equal in their selfishness, and all are free to seek power

He’s not saying that people will never act on the common good, only that they will do so only if they see an identity between their private interest and the common good


Those who appear good or altruistic to others are either rational actors really motivated by desire for personal advantage, or ruled by laziness and retreating from their political responsibilities


“And it is essential to understand this: that a prince, and especially a new prince, cannot observe all those things for which men are considered good, for in order to maintain the state he is often obliged to act against his promise, against charity, against humanity, and against religion…”


“And therefore, it is necessary that he have a mind ready to turn itself according to the way the winds of fortune and the changeability of affairs require him; and, as I said above, as long as it is possible, he should not stray from the good, but he should know how to enter into evil when necessity commands” (Chapter XVIII).

III. Fortune and Virtue

But what happens if you follow Machiavelli’s principles?

Is success guaranteed Recall the passage about Cesare

Borgia, the model for much of Machiavelli’s discussion:


“Cesare Borgia acquired the state through the favour and help of his father, and when this no longer existed, he lost it, and this despite the fact that he did everything and used every means that a prudent and skilful man ought to use in order to root himself securely in those states that the arms and fortune of others had granted him”

(emphasis added)


Machiavelli recognizes that sometimes, despite the best planning, education, and skill, events still turn out badly

That is, fortune or luck is also a part of our political life


Chapter XXV “I judge it to be true that fortune is the

arbiter of one half of our actions, but that she still leaves the control of the other half, or almost that, to us.”

Flooding river analogy


What to do?1. Follow Machiavelli’s prescriptions.

That is, learn the virtues of ruling2. “I also believe that the man who

adapts his course of action to the nature of the times will succeed and, likewise, that the man who sets his course of action out of tune with the times will come to grief” (XVIII).


In other words, a good ruler is one who can adapt to changing circumstances

It means knowing when to be cautious and hesitant, or bold and forceful, as the occasion demands.


Knowing what to do and when to do it is part of Machiavelli’s understanding of virtue

Unlike the ancient philosophers or Christian theologians, virtue is divorced from the idea of a code of conduct, of “good” versus “bad” ways of acting


Instead, for Machiavelli, virtue is individualistic [contra the Greeks and Romans] and secular [contra the Church]

Not some idealistic merit or moral goodness, but …


A true selfishness that enables individuals to get what they value, whether power, wealth, fame, etc.

Those who get what they seek have demonstrated their virtue and they are judged, in Machiavelli’s criteria, as good.

By adapting – by adjusting cunning and strength, by following the fox and the lion – a virtuous ruler is one who can see trouble on the horizon (the work of fortune) and act rather than be taken off-guard by changing events


Because a political state is passive (events happen to it), it needs constant attention devoted to creating order and avoiding disorder

IV. Forms of Government

What is the best way to maintain the state?

What is the best form of government? What are the basic forms of

government?


Unlike Aristotle, Machiavelli argues that basically we have two forms:

1. Republic2. Monarchy

“All the states, all the dominions that have had and still have power over men, were and still are either republics or principalities” (first sentence, Chapter 1)


But throughout The Prince, that distinction blurs a bit, with monarchies or “civic principalities” ending up looking very similar to republics

The real distinction is then between republics and tyrannies (i.e., those monarchies or principalities which differ from republics).


Republics:Founded by a strong, inspirational

leader rallying the citizenryBased on lawGoverned in the interest of the

majority, not of a special eliteMixed class – members of all classes

have opportunity to participate


Note, republics require a special citizenry: active, engaged, public spirited

Unlikely to have those conditions in every area, so tyranny is inevitable


TyranniesMasses are subjects, not active

participants in political life Ruling classes enjoy more liberty, and

when interests of rulers conflict with liberty of the masses, the rulers prevail


The masses are content with this arrangement since they recognize that without the ruler, anarchy would ensue, or

They’re content because they are either fearful or awestruck of the powers that be


Lacking the virtue of citizens in a republic, the masses under tyrannical regimes both merit and need tyranny

And when a tyrant is stuck governing a bunch of corrupt, vulgar masses who lack virtue, then ordinary morality is not binding and he/she/they can pretty much do what they must to stay in power

machiavelli the prince. machiavelli’s the prince historical overview human nature and power...

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