Machiavelli

8 August 2008

But first, continuation of Vitoria

Potentially just titles

• Protection of the universal right to trade with others

• Protection of the right to evangelize• Protection of the converted• Protection of the innocent against tyranny• Genuinely voluntary choice• Alliance with some natives against others• Near-madness of the natives

A universal right to trade?

A right to evangelize?

“ If the Christian faith be put before the aborigineswith demonstration, that is, with demonstrable and reasonable arguments, and his be accompanied by an upright life, well-ordered according to the law of nature (an argument which weighs much in confirmation of the truth), and his be done not once only and perfunctorily, but diligently and zealously, the aborigines are bound to receive the faith of Christ under penalty of mortal sin.”

“I hear of no miracles or signs or religious patterns of life; nay, on the other hand, I hear of many scandals and cruel crimes and acts of impiety. Hence it does not appear that the Christian religion has been preached to them with such sufficient propriety and piety that they are bound to acquiesce in it.”

• “Sufficient demonstration” not yet a cause for war

• The evangelization of the natives must be actively hindered

• The natives may have just cause to defend themselves anyway

Humanitarian intervention?

Mutual benefit principle

• Human beings should be able to benefit each other unhindered, unless this causes harms to others

Prudence

• All of these titles must be tempered by a concern for proportion, prudence, and the true benefit of the natives

• Even if none of these titles hold, the Spaniards might still trade with the natives peacefully and with profit

Machiavelli

Some key concepts of ancient and Christian thought

• Natural sociality

• Virtue

• The good life

• The good regime

Natural sociality

• A key premise of Ancient and medieval political thought

• Not emphasized in Machiavelli, actively denied in Hobbes

Virtue and politics

• Ancient and medieval thinkers– Good men lead to

good regimes– Virtues of the ruler the

same as the moral virtues

• Machiavelli– Good men lead (some

times) to bad regimes– Good rulers must learn

how not to be good men

– New definition of virtu: the qualities that enable a man to master fortuna

The good life

• Ancient and medieval thinkers– The good life involves

life in accordance with reason

– (Christian thinkers) The key goals of human beings are beyond this life

• Machiavelli– Glory– “I love my country

more than I love my immortal soul” (letter to Francesco Vettori)

The best regime

• Ancient and medieval thinkers– The best regime is a

guiding ideal– The point of politics is to

produce concord or harmony

• Machiavelli– “many have pictured

republics and principalities which in fact have never been known or seen, because how one lives is so far distant from how one ought to live” (chapter 15)

– The point of politics is to manage disharmony for great ends

The problem of The Prince

• Is Machiavelli a “teacher of evil”?

Glory and power

• The problem for the prince is the acquisition of glory, not just power– E.g., Agathocles in chapter 8

A (rough) structure of The Prince

• The circumstances of the aspiring dictator– Classification of states according to the

difficulties they present in seizing and holding power

• The virtues of the aspiring dictator– How similar or different they are from the

virtues as commonly understood

The virtu of the prince

• Are the qualities that enable a person to master fortune the same as the moral qualities?

• Are the qualities of a prince who will be good for a country the same as the moral qualities?

Learning how “not to be good”

• Two ways of understanding Machiavelli’s point– Machiavelli as a “teacher of evil”– “Dirty hands” or “lesser of two evils” analysis

Generosity and stinginess

• Politically, generosity or liberality is extremely expensive because it must be “seen”

• Generosity or liberality will thus involve large taxes on the people, which makes the prince hated

• The hatred of the people is extremely dangerous to the prince

• A reputation for stinginess will eventually be seen as true liberality

Cruelty vs. mercy

• “No prince should mind being called cruel for what he does to keep his subjects united and loyal” (chapter 17)

• Mercy turns into cruelty

• But cruelty can be well and badly used: cruelty well used is mercy

Machiavelli’s paradox

• For better politics, you need (certain kinds of) bad people as politicians

Hatred and contempt

• The key thing that a prince must protect himself against is hatred and contempt

• How is being hated different from being feared?

Things that make you hated

• “It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain. And when neither their property nor honour is touched, the majority of men live content, and he has only to contend with the ambition of a few, whom he can curb with ease in many ways” (chapter 19)

Things that make you contemptible

• It makes him contemptible to be considered fickle, frivolous, effeminate, mean-spirited, irresolute, from all of which a prince should guard himself as from a rock; and he should endeavour to show in his actions greatness, courage, gravity, and fortitude; and in his private dealings with his subjects let him show that his judgments are irrevocable, and maintain himself in such reputation that no one can hope either to deceive him or to get round him. (chapter 19)