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Machiavelli the qualities of the prince essay
Machiavelli the qualities of the prince essay
Machiavelli the qualities of the prince essay
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The Prince: A Decidedly unMedieval Piece of Work The Prince, written by Niccolo Machiavelli, was a secular handbook that dealt with modern statecraft and leadership. In fact, this was the first modern book that discussed political science. This book has influenced many well-known leaders, such as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. This essay will discuss the past behaviours of Machiavelli to prove that this book, The Prince, is a decidedly unMedieval piece of work which does not follow the idea of living life so that it is worthy of respect and honour, as stated in the Medieval Code of Chivalry.
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.
Machiavelli argues the perfect prince will be both feared and loved by his people, and if unable to be both he will make himself feared and not hated. Machiavelli believes it is much safer to be feared than to be loved because people are less likely to offend and stand up against strong characters, also people are less concerned in offending a prince who has made himself loved. Accordingly, Machiavelli believes generosity is harmful to your reputation and the choice between being generous or stingy, merciful or cruel, honest or deceitful, should only be important if it aids the prince in political power. All in all, Machiavelli believes the ruler must be a great deceiver and do what is essential to uphold power over the
Machiavelli describes to us that a successful prince needs to have the two compelling qualities: that of a lion a lion and a fox. In chapter 18, Machiavelli says “… One needs to be a fox to recognize snares and a lion to recognize the wolves” (Machiavelli, 69). A prince must be smart like a fox but have the strength of a lion. This shows the value of dealing with situations (realism) as they come. Furthermore, when Machiavelli describes the qualities of a king, he implies that a prince should have the qualities and morals that are honest, but also be able to turn in a situation and protect the state.
The prince must remain powerful and always be wary of powerful outsiders who might try to over throw him. One must always show he is in power and be award of others who seems to be a threaten to his throne. Machiavelli goes on to use The Romans, as an explain who eventually grew to takeover Greece with the help of the Aetolians. Not being aware of Others who can over throw a leader can cause a prince to lose his power and his principality. A quality that a prince should have is always been
However, if he were to only be one of these, it would be best to be feared. Again, Machiavelli bases his opinion on his disbelief in the integrity of human beings. In chapter 17, he states, “For love is held by a chain of duty which, since men are bad, they break at every chance of their own profit; but fear is held by a dread of punishment that never fails you.” This is another case in which Machiavelli’s point of view may work for his time, but not today’s. In Machiavelli’s day, a ruler had sole authority over his country, and obedience was expected from every one of his subjects.
Concerning The Prince: Love and Fear In The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, he discusses and describes several pieces of advice on how to be a successful prince. While there is plenty of advice to look at in The Prince, this paper will just focus on Machiavelli’s advice and thoughts on being a prince in chapter 17. In chapter 17 he discusses the question of which is better for a prince; to be loved or to be feared. Machiavelli believes both should be the answer, but since it is difficult for one person to achieve both, it is a better choice to be a feared prince because of the connections one would have with his people and less chance of betrayal, but being feared should not be misused as cruelty and hate should be avoided.
During his career he was able to study the science of politics and thought about its fundamental principles. Furthermore, he observed men and his view on humanity was not cheerful. Indeed, the pessimistic notion that humanity is evil is not so much Machiavelli’s conclusion about human nature as his premise for the course a ruler should follow. A prudent ruler…cannot
The Prince, written by Machiavelli, is a candid outline of how he believes leaders gain and keep power. Machiavelli uses examples of past leaders to determine traits that are necessary to rule successfully. Leaders such as the King of Naples and the Duke of Milan lacked military power, made their subjects hate them, or did not know how to protect themselves from the elite, causing them to lose power. He says that these rulers should blame laziness, not luck, for their failures. By looking at these historical successes and failures, Machiavelli is able to develop his own thoughts on how politics and leaders should be in the future.
In the book, Machiavelli believes in the idea of having a strong dominant leader, in order to preserve the benefits to the citizens as a group instead of individually. This strategy clearly shows in chapter seventeen where Machiavelli points out that every prince would prefer to be loved than to be feared. However, the two rarely co-existed. If one had to choose, it is not only better to be feared than to be loved but it is also much “safer” looking at it realistically. By safer, it means that you will not have to worry and watch out as much since people will be less likely to conspire against someone they fear than someone they love.
According to Machiavelli, a prince who keeps his promises is generally praised. But history demonstrates that most success is achieved when princes are crafty, tricky and able to deceive others. A prince can fight or succeed by using law or by using force. The use of law comes naturally to men and the use of force comes naturally to beasts. Hence, to achieve success, the prince must learn to fight with a balance between both law and force.
A leader’s cruelty enables him to make the decisions necessary for the kingdom, while also being miserly to keep the people happy. I think that Machiavelli’s advice provides a sound basis on how leaders today can lead. On other hand, others may argue that Machiavelli’s advice leads rulers astray and rather rulers should be kind and generous because morally that is the right thing to do. No matter the interpretation of how a ruler should lead, Machiavelli's analyst of a leaders provides insight into everyday life and causes leaders today to think about how they
Machiavellianism is the name of a ruthless and selfish approach to management. Niccolo Machiavelli wrote 'The Prince' in 1513, during the turbulent days of the Renaissance Medici’s, as a set of pragmatic instructions to a new prince on how to gain and retain power. The originality of his ideas has been challenged and shown to go back at least to the Athenians, yet the influence of Machiavelli's words still rings around the world. Hence, Machiavellians are manipulative and deceitful individuals willing to utilize any strategy or behavior needed to attain their goals. Little is known about the effects of these personal characteristics that might result in more competitive, antisocial, and even unethical behavior.
Machiavelli believed that men will follow a ruler as long as the ruler serves their interests, and a quick to turn against the ruler unless they fear great punishment. Machiavelli would say that it is best to be feared rather than loved as long as the fear does not cause hate, which he believed to be perfectly possible.
I. Machiavelli In his famous work the Prince Niccolo Machiavelli exposes what it takes to be a good prince and how only this good price and keep control over his state. There are many different qualities that make a man a good ruler but there are some that are more essential than others. In this work Machiavelli stresses the importance of being a warrior prince, a wise prince, and knowing how to navigate the duality of virtù and vices. Without these attributes there was no way that a prince could hold together their state and their people.
