Examining a Statement From Michiavelli's The Prince

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Examining a Statement From Michiavelli's The Prince Few people have not heard of the saying “The end justifies the means”. Popularized by Machiavelli, in his book “The Prince”, this saying suggests that the means in which a ruler uses to achieve a goal are justified by the end results, or in other words, when a ruler wants to achieve a goal then the desired results if achieved, justify the way he went about achieving those ends, what really matters therefore is that he has achieved a favourable goal for the state, the process he went through to achieve such a means does not matter. For example, a ruler who orders executions or who lies to the people of the country is justified so long as such actions result in the benefit of the state. This concept has over the past centuries been debated much as it sometimes seems to go head to head with many moral teachings. Most people who reject this concept do so precisely because; it at times seems to move in the opposite direction to ethical principles. Surprisingly enough, many people including I, apply and even encourage the concept of the end justifies the means in our everyday life. When, for example, we are in a class or a rally and there is a sudden outburst of noise someone may scream, shout, hiss or bang on a table, in the process creating even more noise to restore silence. We rarely criticize the use of such methods to maintain s... ... middle of paper ... ...r governments in Machiavelli’s turbulent era and it as a counsel that remains salient to this day. Bibliography Forsyth and Keens-Soper (1992) “The political classics” New York; Oxford University Press Http: // Jerusalem.indymedia.org/news/2003/08/128233 comment.php 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] See Harvey C Mansfield’s translation of “The Prince” (1998) [2] See Harvey C Mansfield’s translation of “The Prince” (1998) [3] See Economist.com [4] See Jerusalem.indymedia.org [5] See Forsyth and Keens-Soper’s the “The political classic

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