Assessment of a Statement Niccollo Machiavelli, born on May 3, 1469, lived during a period of
turmoil and constant war in Europe. Machiavelli believed that
political life cannot and should not be governed by a set of moral or
religious absolutes. He also believed that in the interest of securing
the state, acts of violence and deception that would be unethical and
indefensible were permissible. This essay will seek to prove that the
statement “the end justifies the means” is not morally defensible. It
will explore the implications of the statement itself, the rudiments
of the social contract, the principles of Machiavelli and solid
empirical evidence.
The belief that the end entirely justifies the means is merely an
extreme version of the commonly held belief that moral considerations
cannot apply to the means except in relation to ends, or that the
latter have a moral priority. Gandhi wrote, “The means may be likened
to a seed, the end to a tree; and there is just the same inviolable
connection between the means and the end as there is between the seed
and the tree.”[1] Thus, one cannot have an end entirely independent
from its means. If any worthwhile end can justify the means to attain
it, a true ethical foundation is lost. But the end does not justify
the means. If that were so, then Hitler could justify the Holocaust
because the end was to purify the human race. Stalin could justify his
slaughter of millions because he was trying to achieve a...
... middle of paper ...
...t individual among us is
basically the only excuse the government has for even existing”
Bibliography
Forsyth and Keens-Soper (1992) “The Political Classics”
New York; Oxford University Press
Machiavelli, N (1998) “The Prince”, (Harvey C. Mansfield, Ed) (2nd
Edition)
London; University of Chicago press
Jeremy Bentham (1988) “The Principles of Morals and Legislation”
New York; Prometheus Books
Raghawan, N. Iyer (Means And Ends In Politics)
Http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/amin.htm
Antiwar.com
Http://AllAfrica.com/stories/200502140552.html
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[1] Means And Ends in Politics, Chapter 28
[2] Http://AllAfrica.com/stories/200502140552.html
[3] The Political Classics, Pg 99
[4] The Price, Chapter 16
Machiavelli was a Florentine Statesman. In 1512, the Florentine Republic collapsed and the Medico's came back into power. Machiavelli was labeled a traitor and was sent to prison where he was tortured and threatened with execution.1 He was subsequently released into exile. He went to the country and wrote “The Prince”. He had wanted to present it to Lorenzo Medici as a show of his loyalty but it did not have the effect that Machiavelli had envisioned.
Born in 1469 to an economically limited family under the parents of Bernardo di Niccolò di Buoninsegna and Bartolomea de’Nelli, Niccolò de Bernardo Machiavelli was exposed to numerous books covering law and Classical texts in his youth, which he consequently learned to reject even before entering in Florentine politics.2 A self-taught intellectual like his father Bernardo, Machiavelli began studies in Latin at age seven. Although he was well-learned in the language by his young adulthood, he quickly refused to write his treatises ...
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kinds, the seed of which is in it, upon the earth.” And it came to be
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