Machiavelli's The Prince

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Given a position of power, Machiavelli discusses his view on the proper approach to power in his book, The Prince. He wrote the book to give advice to Lorenzo d’ Medici of Florence, so that he could unite and take power in a disjointed Italy at the time. Morality is a topic Machiavelli completely ignores in his advice. His quote on “the end justifies the means” becomes a main viewpoint regarding his advice to Medici. Gaining and maintaining power is viewed as the priority. The value of ethics is never discussed in the text. Furthermore, he advises a very pragmatic approach to power by giving legitimacy to unethical acts and decisions. Although he doesn’t directly advocate to be evil, he advises to not avoid being evil if it brings a greater …show more content…

Military force is given a heavy emphasis in regards to an effective ruler. Not only being effective in military conquests is prioritized, but being able to maintain that land is also emphasized. “Whenever those states which have been acquired as stated have been accustomed to live under their laws and in freedom, there are three courses for those who wish to hold them: the first is to ruin them, the next is to reside there in person, the third is to permit them to live under their own laws, drawing a tribute, and establishing within it an oligarchy which will keep it friendly to you.” These three ways completely avoid ethics and only focus on the best way to maintain power. For example, the first method is ‘to ruin them’. Although the most effective, a prince ruining a state and their people is completely unethical. Furthermore, the other methods aren’t much better. They involve killing the family of the former ruling power and other nasty suppression methods. These three ways just completely avoid ethics and are just merely evil. Furthermore, after the conquest of a new territory, a prince must determine how much damage to cause. It’s best to either strike all at once or avoid any damage at all. If they are striked all at once, the public will just eventually forget. In essence, Machiavelli definitely doesn’t avoid to acknowledge cruelty and evil means to establish power. He discusses exactly how much evil that should be employed without upsetting the

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