Cassirer, Nietzsche and Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince
When the word "Renaissance" is mentioned, an image of love for antiquity learning and fine arts usually springs to one's mind. Yet this perception, however legitimate it may be in many areas of Renaissance human achievements, shatters in the face of Niccolò Machiavelli's masterpiece The Prince. Unlike his contemporary Baldassare Castiglione who exemplified subtlety, Machiavelli was ruthlessly practical, nonchalantly callous, and admirably seamless in his logics about the bloody art of political power.
By all accounts The Prince, is a handbook on the acquisition and maintenance of political power. Neither can it be argued any otherwise, like Ernest Cassirer has acknowledged in his commentary "New Theory of the State", that "Machiavelli has no scruples about recommending to the ruler all things of deception, of perfidy, and cruelty." (p157, "New Theory of the State") Yet in the realm of Machiavellism, a very distinctive line must be drawn between using evil to achieve power and using it for its own sake. The Prince preached the first form of use. To Cassirer, Machiavelli much resembled a fascinated chess strategist, not concerned with who the players were but purely how the games were played out—how each step, when stripped of the useless morality, added to the grand game. His personal sentiments and beliefs could not affect his analysis of the intrigues, thus there is no room for moral principles in The Prince.
Cassirer, however, also points out that while Machiavelli did by no means object to the use of evil, he did not create Machiavellism as the world knows it: Machiavelli had no more invented the practice of cruelty and treachery amongst political rulers than t...
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...ody the two distinctive yet intertwined layers of Machiavellism—which is, ironically, far from Machiavelli's creation. Whereas Cassirer stresses the removed chess-game mentality of Machivalli in the creation of his political masterpiece, Nietzsche shares Machiavelli's deeply cynical view of human nature. Machiavellism and The Prince can be interpreted from many different angles, yet its profound influence on the politics as well as philosophy has been definitive and far-reaching.
Works Cited
Cassirer, Ernest. "New Theory of the State." The Prince. Robert M. Adams. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992.
Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. Robert M. Adams. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992.
More, Thomas. Utopia. Robert M. Adams. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992.
Nietzsche, Fredrich. "Morals as Fossilized Violence." The Prince. Robert M. Adams. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992.
Niccolò Machiavelli was a man who lived during the fourteen and fifteen hundreds in Florence, Italy, and spent part of his life imprisoned after the Medici princes returned to power. He believed that he should express his feelings on how a prince should be through writing and became the author of “The Qualities of a Prince.” In his essay, he discusses many points on how a prince should act based on military matters, reputation, giving back to the people, punishment, and keeping promises. When writing his essay, he follows his points with examples to back up his beliefs. In summary, Machiavelli’s “The Qualities of a Prince,” provides us with what actions and behaviors that a prince should have in order to maintain power and respect.
Machiavelli discusses assertive and bold ideas in “The Prince,” revealing his radical and courageous nature. His treatise is deceptively self-soliciting, because he disguises his extreme notions behind a veil of feigned expertise. His frank approach makes him appear confident and deserving of the utmost respect; however, he cautiously humbles himself by pouring immense flattery for the ruling prince into his work and, in doing so, assures protection for himself and his notorious ideas.
Machiavelli is undisputedly one of the most influential political philosophers of all time. In The Prince, his most well-known work, he relates clearly and precisely how a decisive, intelligent man can gain and maintain power in a region. This work is revolutionary because it flies in the face of the Christian morality which let the Roman Catholic Church hold onto Europe for centuries. Machiavelli's work not only ignores the medieval world's ethics: The Prince suggests actions which oppose the four most basic of Christianity's Ten Commandments.
In The Prince, Machiavelli separates ethics from politics. His approach to politics, as outlined in The Prince, is strictly practical. Machiavelli is less concerned with what is right and just, and instead with what will lead to the fortification of the government and the sustainment of power. Machiavelli believed that a ruler should use any means necessary to obtain and sustain power. He says, “…people judge by outcome. So if a ruler wins wars and holds onto power, the means he has employed will always be judged honorable, and everyone will praise them” (Machiavelli, 55). According to Machiavelli, the ends of an action justify the means (Machiavelli, 55). His motivation for these views in The Prince was the reunification of the Italian city-states (Machiavelli, 78-79). Machiavelli wanted Italy to return to its glory of the Roman Empire (Machiavelli 78-79). Some of the beliefs of Machiavelli could be perceived as evil and cruel, but he found them necessary. Machiavelli was not concerned with making people happy. His purpose was outcome and success, and in his opinion, the only way to be successful was to be realistic. These views of Machiavelli could classify him as one of the earliest modern
Originally this category was titled technology and assessments, but I needed to make the category larger in scope to fit in some of the more “specialized” articles. This article was published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2009 by Edy S. Quellmalz and James W. Pellegrino was simply titled, “Technology and Testing”. Although the focus of this work centered on large-scale testing, there was some helpful dialogue surrounding classroom-based assessments that proved useful. The main idea of this article was that besides the obvious advantage of quick, accurate scoring and feedback, technological applications can be used to provide “rich, authentic tasks that challenge the sorts of integrated knowledge, critical thinking, and problem solving seldom well addressed in paper-based tests” (Quellmalz & Pellegrino, 75). In other words, these two authors strongly feel technological based assessments are superior to paper-based assessments, and thus will yield greater results. They go on to say that this shift in assessment is a crucial part of 21st-century learning and will continue to improve and develop. Already this can be seen within districts as they struggle to implement the PARCC throughout their schools. In their discussion of classroom instructional uses of technology-based assessments, the authors reaffirm the benefits of formative assessments if they
Turner, David L. Matthew: Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008.
The term “ageism” is not easily understood by most of the population because of its acceptance as normal behavior due to the ingrained attitudes that most people develop in their youth, but health care workers must fully embrace the term within their profession in order to avoid becoming a contributor to the historical prevalence of prejudices and discrimination. The term ageism is defined by Klein and Liu (2010) as “the discrimination of individuals based solely on age” (p. 334). “Ageism is a social construct that is internalized in the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of individuals” (Klein & Liu, 2010, p. 334). Robert Butler, a well-known gerontologist, coined the term “ageism” citing that the discrimination and prejudice associated with this term is often based on the lack of a person’s experience with older people (Ferrini & Ferrini, 2013, p. 6). Ferrini and Ferrini (2013) refer to the strong influence that cultural beliefs and attitudes as well as a person’s current age influence the perception of aging (p. 6). Everywhere within society there are influences that encourage ageist attitudes such as media conveyances through movies, books, television, greeting cards, magazines and the Internet (Ferrini and Ferrini, 2013, p. 6). These negative connotations related to growing older begin to influence all people at a very young age and therefore impact their attitudes as they make career decisions. This has directly impacted the number of health care providers who specialize in geriatrics as well as the attitudes of those who do provide services for older adults. These false perceptions and negative attitudes are currently impacting the q...
Machiavelli, Niccolo. “The Prince and The Discourses” McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 1 edition (August 1, 1950)
Many empirical things can often still be debated and refuted by experts, but there is a general admittance to the idea that power is the root of many evil things. In all fairness, we must admit that a many evil things can in their essence, be great. And that is one of the many theories advanced by Niccolo Machiavelli in his well-known work, The Prince. The Prince serves a dual purpose of both teaching a person how to attain power, but also how to retain it. Incredibly enough, history has proven most of Machiavelli’s findings and theories to work well, while some have failed to effectively secure power for the rulers who did, in fact try them. His work, does obviously highlight one main fact, which is, that power is a well sought-after attribute, and most who attain are willing to do whatever is necessary to keep it.
Ageism is a concept that has been around for a very long time. According to a philosopher named Seneca who lived sometime between 4 BC and 65 AD, “Senectus morbidus est” which has been translated to say, “old age is a disease”. However, when Seneca said this the idea of “ageism” was not a thing. It did not get the name ageism till 1969, after Robert N. Butler coined the term. The act of ageism is something we all try to avoid, however most of the time we don’t see something or someone who is doing or saying something that could be considered to be ageism. All though we don’t always see it, ageism is something that happens almost every day of our life; it is that beer commercial with a “sexy” young female in it. Ageism is when a coworker is forced to retire at a specific age. There are even studies that show the ageism stereotypes becoming more common on our social media outlets. The problem with these stereotypes becoming more common in social media is that more and more people are being exposed to something that is starting to have a very big impact in our country, ageism.
“The Prince”, by Niccolo Machiavelli, is a series of letters written to the current ruler of Italy, Lorenzo de’ Medici. These letters are a “how-to” guide on what to do and what not to do. He uses examples to further express his views on the subject. The main purpose was to inform the reader how to effectively rule and be an acceptable Prince. Any ruler who wishes to keep absolute control of his principality must use not only wisdom and skill, but cunning and cruelness through fear rather than love. Machiavelli writes this book as his summary of all the deeds of great men.
Machiavelli uses classical sources to advise a prince on the best way to maintain power. He alludes to Plato’ Republic to illustrate how many men have attempted to advice princes “ A great many men have imagined states and princedoms such as nobody ever saw or knew in the real word, and there’s such a difference between the way we really live and the way we ought to live that the man who neglects the real to study the ideal will learn how to accomplish his ruin, not his salvation.” Machiavelli also makes various references to classical figures to demonstrate examples of princely leadership. Machiavelli’s classical allusions are indicative of the Renaissance as the renewed study of the ancient classics was an important element of the Renaissance. Machiavelli adopted classical ideas in the hopes that these examples could inspire improvements within Italy. Rafael Major supports this idea in “ A New Argument for Morality: Machiavelli and the Ancients.” He argues, “ Even a cursory survey of classical literature reveals that very little of The Prince can properly be called original.” More also reflects the Renaissance through his classical allusions. He uses his classical sources to criticize certain practices within Europe, while also offering solutions to these problems through the example of the classics. For example, he also alludes to
Technology provides a great resource for teachers and students in the ongoing effort to assess student learning. Mayen and Greer (2010) mention 9 ways technology helps in assessing student learning.” Technology provides the capacity to (a) provide immediate feedback to teachers on the performance of learners individually, and in aggregate, to facilitate databased instructional decisions; (b) provide feedback to students as they engage in Web-based instruction; (c) present skills and concepts in graphics and animation for clarity; (d) offer opportunities for students to interact with the delivery of instruction in a manner that is engaging; (e) deliver instruction aligned with standards and formative and summative assessments; (f) embed assessments in instructional applications; (g) provide instructional opportunities in nonschool settings; (h) employ features that enhance mo...
...es, where the lived experience ageing has been discussed from a mainly discriminatory point of view, must be and is considered very useful in modern society. It is also important however, to consider not only the hostile approach to ageing, but also the cases when prejudice can be more benevolent. Examples in the case of the elderly include those that may offer them preferential treatment, including cheaper visits to the cinema or bus passes (these sort of discounts can also be applied to the young of course). Conversely, the perception of incompetence can lead to conclusion about people either side of adult to be unfairly dismissed when considering a task to complete. In some cases there is little or exaggerated evidence to support these claims. This can lead to concerns from any individual that when they do reach the later years of their life, will they be needed?
Strauss, Leo. Machiavelli’s Intention: The Prince . Ed. Leo Strauss. N.p., 1958. Web. 1 Dec. 2010. .