Plato Vs Machiavelli

Plato and Machiavelli both influenced the modern concepts of political theory by outlining their conceptions of human nature, and prescribing how one should go about dealing with others within their communities, and how they should deal with themselves. Machiavelli helped to shape the modern outlook because he talks and makes decisions/suggestions based on real life and how things are. This differentiated him from other philosophers, like Plato, because he spoke and made references to things based on ideal/theoretical situations instead of how things were in his society. Machiavelli has accepted the flaws that come with human society because he sees that some people cannot change, and that some are to deep in their own demise/destruction, and

This is the way he believes man should live. Machiavelli says that men and princes should not try to live as “good” people because not everyone they will encounter will be good. “If men were entirely good this precept would not hold, but because they are bad, and will not keep faith with you, you too are not bound to observe it with them” (Machiavelli 84). However, Machiavelli also believes that a man/prince should hide their nature of not being good, since no one else is truly good, but also because no one will accept, work with, or do anything for someone who appears to just be purely evil and immoral. If a man were to disregard this condition of how to live, the man/prince would not be able to move up the ranks or gain any positive recognition. “It is necessary to know well how to disguise this characteristic, and to be a great pretender and dissembler” (Machiavelli 84). Human nature in a nutshell, from Machiavelli’s interpretation is that humans are, in a sense, consumed with greed and materialistic desires. It is because of this, that he believes the best approach to understanding human beings in general is to “Lower our sights”. In summary, Machiavelli believes than no one truly needs to be good, and that any specific person just needs to appear to be good. In addition to this, he also believes that because no one can be good, and that everyone should lower their expectations of people around them. The true aims in life, from Machiavelli’s point of view of human beings and their nature, is to fulfil basic