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Generosity And Martin Luther's He

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Generosity is a quality of being forgiving and non-selfish. It is oftentimes associated with being selfless and leads to absolution and forbearance. In addition, it is a trait that requires one to put others before his plans. Both authors believe that generosity and kindness is associated with love, even though Machiavelli believes that excessive generosity should be avoided. He even notes that being generous for its sake harms a person’s reputation and costs one all their political capital. Luther, on the other hand, did not feel that his generosity should have any ulterior motives. For example, he helped others without expecting anything in return, despite of his financial hardships. Through Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince and Martin Luther’s …show more content…

He is also saying that people should get recognition for doing good deeds. He also continues and advises politicians to give people many promises during the campaign trail, but also says when one reaches power, such generosity needs to stop. “Either you are already a prince, or you are on the way to becoming one. In the first case, your generosity will be to your cost; in the second, it is certainly necessary to have a reputation for generosity.” (The Prince, 52) So, in Machiavelli’s point of view, as a politician, the purpose and intentions of one’s generosity is solely to get to their desired position, in this case the prince. The politicians will say numerous things they will do when they become a prince; however, once they actually become one, they no longer feel obliged to keep their promises, and most of the promises they made were merely to get the votes. This results in only a small fraction of the promises being kept, and these kinds of politicians are not so hard to find even in today’s

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In Niccolo Machiavelli's book, The Prince (1513), he evaluates on how a prince can be a successful leader. Machiavelli’s purpose of this guidebook was to construct his argument to the rising ruler Giuliano de Medici for when he comes to power in Florence. He adopts a casual but authoritative tone in order to convince the prince that Machiavelli’s evaluation on how to be the best prince, is the right thing for the prince to do without coming off as he knows more than the prince or is trying to intimidate him.. Machiavelli’s reference to previous rulers and whether their tactics failed or succeeded helps to benefit his credibility along with his allusion to historic text. He appeals to our logic by simply stating a prince can only do what is within his power to control, and his use of an analogy furthers his argument.

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Machiavelli wrote about a fictitious prince, describing how he is a terrible being who has no respect for people who have a lower status than him. He is described as being selfish and untrustworthy. His writing about this prince was supposed to replicate princes and kings that were ruling and open he reader’s eyes to real issues occuring. In Document 1 there is an excerpt from The Prince, written by Machiavelli, telling about how terrible the Prince of England. Document 1 states, “For all men in general this observation may be made: they are ungrateful, fickle, and deceitful, eager to avoid dangers, and avid for gain, and while you are useful to them they are all with you, but when it [danger] approaches they turn on you”.

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I think that Martin Luther’s life and accomplishments have had the greatest impact on our modern world. “Martin Luther began the Reformation in the early sixteenth century” (171-174). He also wrote the 95 thesis. Without Martin Luther today may not be anything like it is, everyone may have had to be only one religion, people may not have been able to express their feeling the way we can now. “By 1520 Luther had begun to move toward a more definite break with the Catholic Church” (174).

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Luther's problem with the selling of indulgences was the fact that they were sold out of greed robbing people of their money and they were getting nothing out of it. Luther's problem with the people not being allowed to read the bible was that they needed to know what was said in the bible because back then the bible was in Latin and no one could understand it except for church officials. This also relates to the sale of indulgences because if every commoner were allowed to read the bible they would know indulgences were completely unnecessary and did absolutely nothing. Luther also thought the church had too much power which was true, they could persecute anyone because they weren’t Catholic and they had political power basically making the king's

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One aspect of Machiavelli’s theory which significantly contributes to his reputation as the “philosopher of evil,” is his advice to the prince on keeping their word to the public. In chapter eighteen, Machiavelli states, “a wise ruler cannot, and should not, keep his word when doing so is to his disadvantage, and when the reasons that led him to promise to do so no longer apply” (pg. 37). To simplify, Machiavelli says princes are obligated to lie in certain circumstances. He also states that while it is unnecessary for the prince to have positive qualities, such as honesty, trustworthiness, sympathy, compassion, or be religious, it is essential for the prince to be viewed so by the public (pg. 37). While many people argue that Machiavelli’s legitimization of lying and deception in politics is immoral, I argue the opposite.

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In Machiavelli’s book, The Prince, he maintains a harsh perspective on reality. His advice on how to maintain power leaves no room for compassion or generousity. While some may believe that these are qualities of a good person, Machiavelli believes these qualities lead to the downfall of rulers. He acknowledges that, in reality, it is impossible for someone to have qualities of a good person and simultaneously a good ruler. Machiavelli’s realistic outlook causes him to emphasize that it is better to maintain power through fear, rather than compassion.

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Both of these highly influential authors had different opinions on ruling that would shape how people would rule during their time and for rulers to come. One of Machiavelli’s major points in The Prince was that it was better to be feared than to be loved. He said this was because while both ways can be useful tools to help one rule, men are less likely to turn a ruler if they were afraid of punishment. Machiavelli had little faith in the common man and had this to say about them, “They are ungrateful, fickle, deceptive and deceiving, avoiders of dangers, eager to gain”(pg.353).

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