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Machiavelli on luck and fortune
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To Machiavelli, Virtue is basically one’s ability to bring chaos under his control. Virtue is the skillfulness that leads up to how well one can run his kingdom. It is the way that one uses virtues such as honesty and generosity to rule his kingdom and how he plans to maintain the power as a prince.
Fortune, as Machiavelli described in the text, is basically chance or luck; the chance of an event being in your favor or against. For the most part, Machiavelli isn’t an advocate for leaving everything to chance. He does believe that we cannot avoid Fortune and that it does play a significant role in one’s life. Machiavelli does state that there are instances where people were able to gain ownership of a kingdom by pure chance and that there is nothing wrong with that. But then he later proposes that the problem arises when they cannot govern their newly possessed land and their people in an effective manner.
In chapter 25 Machiavelli raises the point about how for many centuries, many have lived
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He believed that it was acceptable for a leader to be a liar and deceitful in order to maintain his political power. This differed much from Socrates’ “one should never be unjust” philosophy. Machiavelli lived more on the fact that if his unjust acts can be justified and were for his greater good, in the end, he believed it was the right thing to do. Machiavelli also discusses that it may be possible for a prince to be obligated to be honest in some cases if it help his political career within his people. He raises to this notion that if a ruler is always honest, he will end up losing his kingdom. He does rise up the point that a prince must act in good faith whenever possible but that there are some things that the people just must not know. Acting in good faith could lead to a better result for the prince himself and his people; but he also agrees that a prince should be capable of acting in bad faith as
Machiavelli believes that a government should be very structured, controlled, and powerful. He makes it known that the only priorities of a prince are war, the institutions, and discipline. His writings describes how it is more important for a prince to be practical than moral. This is shown where he writes, "in order to maintain the state he is often obliged to act against his promise, against charity, against humanity, and against religion" (47). In addition, Machiavelli argues that a prince may have to be cunning and deceitful in order to maintain political power. He takes the stance that it is better for the prince to be feared than loved. His view of how a government should run and his unethical conduct are both early signs of dictatorship.
Machiavelli’s views were drastically different from other humanists at his time. He strongly promoted a secular society and felt morality was not necessary but stood in the way of a successfully governed state. He stated that people generally tended to work for their own best interests and gave little thought to the well being of the state. He distrusted citizens saying, “In time of adversity, when a state is in need of its citizens, there are few to be found.” In his writings in The Prince, he constantly questioned the citizens’ loyalty and warned for the leaders to be wary in trusting citizens. His radical and distrusting thoughts on human nature were derived out of concern for Italy’s then unstable government. Machiavelli also had a s...
Machiavelli understood the importance of keeping the good will of the governed populace, and with this as its backbone, The Prince provides historically supported advice on how to rule. Because of this, the Machiavellian doctrine has been accepted and followed, knowingly or unknowingly, by multitudes of princes, kings, prime ministers and presidents since his time.
Machiavelli disagrees with the classical definition of virtue. He makes a distinction between what he calls ‘virtu’ and ordinary goodness; a separation between private and public morality. Virtue literarily means manliness, and he equates it to skillful self-advancement. Virtue implies physical and mental capacity-intelligence, skill, courage, vigor; everything that is necessary for attainment of one’s own ends. Additionally, virtue is the ability to be flexible and adjust in any given situation. Pizan, on the other hand, attributes loyalty, prudence, intellect, imagination, moral strength and insight to virtue. Although their definitions of virtue are not necessarily the same, the historical, mythical, and biblical examples Pizan and Machiavelli utilize are aimed at proving the same point, that glory is the goal of acting virtuously.
Machiavelli discusses human free will especially in its relation to God, or more specifically, fortune. He chooses to focus on Fortune though, leaving God out of the equation for the most part which he does in most of his writing, as he believes his writing is on politics which is separate from religion. He argues that the general belief is that Fortune and God govern human affairs and that it is easy for humans to...
Machiavelli’s views on human nature are unjust; nevertheless, his philosophy, or rather instructions, is reasonable in capturing the selfishness of men. As written in The Qualities of the Prince by Machiavelli, “Men are ungrateful, fickle, simulators and deceivers, avoiders of danger, greedy for gain; and while you work for their good they are completely yours, offering you their blood, their property, their lives, and their sons… when danger is far away; but when it comes nearer to you they turn away.'; Machiavelli’s generalization demonstrates his low opinion on the nature of men because he views them as selfish and lacking in both loyalty and honesty.
For instance, he states that “it is necessary for a prince, who wishes to maintain himself to learn how not to be good, and to use his knowledge and not use it, according to the necessity of the case” and that “he must not mind incurring the scandal of those vices without which it would be difficult to save the state” because “it will be found that some things which seems virtues would lead to one’s ruin” and some that seem to be vices result in greater security and wellbeing (Machiavelli, pg. 15). Machiavelli doesn't define virtue as other humanist might he believes that virtues are qualities that others praise, like generosity and honesty. He argues that a prince should
Machiavelli’s ultimate goal is to inform the Prince on how to keep his principality and assure his spot. The Prince needs to maintain power and can do anything to get and keep it, as long as it doesn’t affect his subjects negatively. Some methods can be steal land, make empty promises, and cheat people in order to stay on top. Machiavelli says “The Principle foundations that all States have, as well new, as old, or mixt are good laws, and good armes; and because there cannot be good laws where there are good armes; and where there are good armes, there must be good laws.” (Letter 12) Without good armies there cannot be good laws, but if a state has a strong army, that shows the state has good laws that are enforced.It is crucial to lay down a solid foundation, because after he has spent so long clawing his way to the top, he wouldn’t want all of it come crashing down. This means eliminating rivals and winning followers. Machiavelli says “They who by fortune only becomes Princes of private men, with small pains to attain is, but have much ado to maintain themselves in it; and find no difficulty at all in the way, because they are carried thither with...
Machiavelli believed that, ethics and morality were considered in other categories than those generally known. He does not deny the existence of, but did not see how they can be useful in its traditional sense as in politics and in the government of the people. According to Machiavelli, a man is by nature a political angry and fearful. Machiavelli had no high opinion of the people. It is assumed that a person is forced to be good and can get into the number of positive features, such as prudence and courage. The prince can only proceed gently and with love, because that would undermine the naivety of his rule, and hence and the well-being of the state. He thought that, the Lord must act morally as far as possible, immorally to the extent to
Machiavelli shows some examples from the history such as Moses, Cyrus, Romulus and Theseus. All of the mentioned rulers have their good chance once and they use this chance in their own way by showing all their skills and strength. These rulers do not depend on given opportunities but work to make their success long-lasting. As Machiavelli states that "the fortune determines one half of the actions", the other half is controlled by the person himself (pg.74). This is why the given examples are relevant and important to explain the relationship between fortune and virtù.
Additionally, The Prince states that secular forms of government are more realistic than pious ones because a pious government would be bound by morals. In the Prince, Machiavelli tries to convey that the end justifies the means, which means any thing goes. He claims that it would be ideal for a prince to possess all the qualities that are deemed good by other men, but states that no leader can accomplish that. He also states that the security of the state should be the prince’s first priority and it must be protected by any means necessary. Although, this can be true in certain cases, Machiavelli uses it as an excuse to use evil and cruel tactics.
Some may take this to mean a completely different thing, such as thinking that Machiavelli believes that the end justifies the means, that a leader should lie to the people, and that a ruler has to rule with force. In actuality, Machiavelli means no such thing. He says that there are times when the common good outweighs the means, and the morality of a ruler’s actions. He also says that you cannot be loved by everyone, so try to be loved and feared at the same time, but of the two, choose to be feared.
Machiavelli’s advice to princes directly correlated to his view on human nature. He believed that every common man was born evil and selfish. That did not stop him, however, from saying that humans many show instances when they exhibit generosity and wholeheartedness. He does tell princes, however, not to count on the few occurrences that may happen, and he says, “It is necessary to be a prince to know thoroughly the nature of the people, and one of the populace to know the nature of princes”. He is saying is that it is imperative that a prince knows the natural human nature, that each and every human will become more self-interested than interested in the good of the state. If he is ignorant to that fact, his kingdom/area of rule will deteriorate simply because he believes in the citizens that occupy it. He does believe, however, that with the right training, a human being can be molded (with the help of the state, of course) and he says, “Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many.” Although he believes that people cannot change themselves for the good, he does think that the state and military can shape humans for the better, but there will always be
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
On the other hand, Machiavelli describes free will and fate differently in his writing called, “The Prince.” This story come out of a wonderful time known to the art world as the Renaissance period. The Renaissance period lasted from the fourteen-hundreds to the seventeen-hundreds. Many great works of art that would impact the times and philosophical works would come out of this time frame. “The Prince” would be one of these great works. Unlike Socrates, Machiavelli would be banished from his home and sent away to live in exile. He would write “The Price” during his banishment in hopes to regain his power in the government. Machiavelli’s idea was in order to be a leader one must succumb to a certain ideology. In order to do this, one