Machiavelli's Dichotomy

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Recommended: The role of art in our life

Yesterday we discussed about a lot of things such as the reading on the Prince, why art would be a good doorway to allow oneself to enable realistic interpretation of the world around us, and also the concept of transcendental reality. We also talked about Augustine’s model of our understand known as the dual plane theory of reality. Furthermore, this is shown in the City of God Books where there was a dichotomy between the City of Gods verse the City of Man. In the City of Gods, there’s not only heaven, but also love which organizes people and serves as the principle whereas in the City of Man, we are people of greed power and hatred, slowly disintegrating the world we live in. After rereading last night’s reading, it has been made apparent …show more content…

In Machiavelli’s text he simply explains the rules that must be followed in order to conquest a territory and conquest it in a way that is effective. Machiavelli uses an example of the Romans that successfully conquested another and King Louis as an example that did not. From the Roman example, Machiavelli explains how the Romans were successful for being able to break the power of the strong and indulge the weak and didn’t allow foreigners to gain power. This act of breaking the poor is logical because there is nothing that the poor can do. Machiavelli writes, “men ought either to be caressed or destroyed, since they will seek revenge for minor hurts but will not be able to revenge major ones.” Then in analyzing King Louis’ ruling, he is exactly what is an example of failure because of his inability to value his initial power. He weakened the power of those already weak and strengthened those that were already strong, such as the church. What Machiavelli is trying to accomplish with the Prince, is to broaden the mind of Italy through the use of examining previous failures and accomplishments, which is a common technique to decide upon what the future of something should look like. So my question to the class is, would you consider the Roman ruler in Machiavelli’s the Prince evil? Another question

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