The Machiavellian Element in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

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Recommended: Machiavelli and morality

Machiavelli's Moral and social philosophy, as expressed in the prince, and the way this is related to in the political philosophy, style, and actions of Julius Caesar of Shakespeare's play For the reason that philosophy including all other branches of knowledge, from head to toe, is meant for the welfare and wellbeing of mankind thus the sacred branch of knowledge such as philosophy is all about discovering and investigating the hidden for the further wellbeing of mankind instead of putting the same human beings into the hands of totally inhuman structure based on Machiavelli's moral and social philosophy. I would rather call Machiavelli's moral and social philosophy as mere tactics of treating human being worse than live-stock. If people are still firm on calling Machiavelli’s recommended tactics as philosophy then, better to say, at the end of the day we will end up with egg on our face.

Frankly speaking, a rather illogical viewpoint as given by Machiavelli can not be called as philosophy at any cost. Historically, Machiavelli was an Italian political theorist whose book The Prince (1513) describes the achievement and maintenance of power by a determined ruler indifferent to moral considerations. Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian author and statesman, is one of the outstanding figures of the Renaissance, b. Florence. Machiavelli's best-known work, Il principe [the prince] (1532), describes the means by which a prince may gain and maintain his power. His “ideal” prince (seemingly modeled on Cesare Borgia) is an amoral and calculating tyrant who would be able to establish a unified Italian state. The last chapter of the work pleads for the eventual liberation of Italy from foreign rule. Interpretations of The Prince...

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Machiavelli, Niccoló. 1560; facs. 1969. The Arte of Warre. Trans. Peter Whitehorne. Amsterdam and New York: Da Capo. Shakespeare's Machiavelli, August 5, 2003, http://web.uvic.ca/shakespeare/Library/SLT/ideas/machiavelli2.html

"About Machiavelli" Section, August 5, 2003, http://www.niccolo-machiavelli.com/about.html

Machiavels, August 5, 2003 http://www.shakespeare.com/queries/display.php?id=3355

"The Qualities of the Prince" by Ron King, August 5, 2003, http://www.geometry.net/detail/philosophers/machiavelli_nicolo.html

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Review by Edward Tanguay November 15, 1996 http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~tanguay/book50.htm

Niccolo Machiavelli, August 5, 2003, http://www.smuc.ac.uk/English/en251/en251_5.htm

Concerning Liberality And Meanness, August 5, 2003, http://www.geocities.com/vitomonti2002/juliuscaesar4.html

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