niccoló machiavelli. machiavelli 1469-1527 background

Niccoló Machiavelli

Machiavelli • 1469-1527• Background

Machiavelli• The Prince

– Written to the Medici family (while in exile)

– Handbook on how to be a prince– Concepts and exploits of Césare Borgia

What is the role of a prince? What should he do?

What is the worst condition of a state?

All this can best be guaranteed if the government is stable.

Therefore, the most important role of a prince is to guarantee stability.

Examples?

Summary of a Prince's Duties

• Maintain stability

Change is negative for stability

"It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things."

– Machiavelli, Niccolo, quoted in Thorpe, Scott, How to Think Like Einstein, Barnes & Noble Books, Inc., 2000, p.172.


• Maintain stability• Minimize change

Non-Virtuous People

“It now remains for us to see how a prince should govern his conduct towards his subjects or friends. ...The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous. Therefore if a prince wants to maintain his rule he must learn how not to be virtuous, and to make use of this or not according to need.”

— Machiavelli, The Prince


• Maintain stability• Minimize change• Use virtue as required

Do what needs to be done

“For there is such a difference between how men live and how they ought to live that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done learns his destruction rather than his preservation, because any man who under all conditions insists on making it his business to be good will surely be destroyed among so many who are not good. Hence a prince, in order to hold his position, must acquire the power to be not good, and understand when to use it and when not to use it, in accord with necessity.” --Machiavelli, The Prince


• Maintain stability• Minimize change• Use virtue as required• Be good or not depending on the

situation

Liberality causes problems

“Since, then, a prince cannot, without harming himself make use of this virtue of liberality in such a way that it will be recognized, he does not worry, if he is prudent, about being called stingy.”

--Machiavelli, The Prince


• Maintain stability• Minimize change• Use virtue as required• Be good or not depending on the

situation• Be liberal or stingy as required for the

moment

Loved or Feared?“Is it better to be loved than feared, or the reverse? The answer is that it is desirable to be both, but because it is difficult to join them together, it is much safer for a prince to be feared than loved, if he is to fail in one of the two. Because we can say this about men in general: they are ungrateful, changeable, simulators and dissimulators, runaways in danger, eager for gain: while you do well by them they are all yours…”


Proper Use of Fear“Nevertheless, the wise prince makes himself feared in such a way that, if he does not gain love, he escapes hated; because to be feared and not to be hated can well be combined; this he will always achieve if he refrains from the property of his citizens and his subjects and from their women.”



• Maintain stability• Minimize change• Use virtue as required• Be good or not depending on the situation• Be liberal or stingy as required for the

moment• Be loved and feared, but favor being

feared. Avoid being HATED!

Danger of Openness“How praiseworthy a prince is who keeps his promises and lives with sincerity and not with trickery everybody realizes. Nevertheless, experience in our time shows that those princes have done great things who have valued their promises little, and who have understood how to addle the brains of men with trickery; and in the end they have vanquished those who have stood upon their honesty.”




moment• Be loved and feared, but favor being feared• Know when to keep a promise

Appearances are Useful“For a prince, then, it is not necessary actually to have all the above-mentioned qualities, but it is very necessary to appear to have them. Further, I shall be so bold as to say this: that if he has them and always practices them, they are harmful; and if he appears to have them, they are useful.”


Appearances are useful

"Every one sees what you seem, but few know what you are."

– Machiavelli, The Prince



moment• Be loved and feared, but favor being feared• Know when to keep a promise• Appear to have good qualities

Adjust to Meet Circumstances

“Therefore he must have a mind ready to turn in any direction as Fortunes’ winds and the variability of affairs require, yet, as I said above, he holds to what is right when he can but knows how to do wrong when he must.”




moment• Be loved and feared, but favor being feared• Know when to keep a promise• Appear to have good qualities• Hold to right when possible but do wrong if

required

Princes Must Maintain Authority

"Wherefore if a Prince succeeds in establishing and maintaining his authority, the means will always be judged honorable and be approved by every one."

– Machiavelli, The Prince


• Maintain stability• Minimize change• Use virtue as required• Be good or not depending on the situation• Be liberal or stingy as required for the moment• Be loved and feared, but favor being feared• Know when to keep a promise• Appear to have good qualities• Hold to right when possible but do wrong if

required• Realize that the end will justify the means

Machiavelli (Summarized)

• What is the basis of Machiavellian thought?

• Should reality be accepted over the ideal?• Is mankind inherently evil?• Is it better to be feared or loved?

– Was Jesus feared or loved?• Does the timeframe of government

determine morality? • Are Machiavellian principles acceptable?

niccoló machiavelli. machiavelli 1469-1527 background

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