Introduction
My purpose is
to provide some background material prior to answering questions with my
tentative answers to support discussions.
Your own views which will be greatly appreciated to
augment those future discussions.
Machiavelli is one of the few writers whose name
has become an adjective in ‘Machiavellianism “ just as was featured in the
darker characters of Shakespearian plays.
“The Prince” was the first
comprehensive text in political science clarifying the necessary ethics in
retaining power in a Republic.
It lays out how a prudent prince secures and
maintains power analogous to the traits of a powerful lion and the cunningness
of the fox. Ethics and virtue in this context don’t correspond with the platonic
view but rather are defined by the existential reality that one cannot rely on
being good to retain power, because of human nature.
He is regarded as a great thinker whose ideas are
still practiced today, notwithstanding his cynical view of humanity and that
some of his views when taken literally remain unacceptable. Some interpret his work as satirical or only
designed to shock rather than be factual whilst others believe his views are
even more dangerous and unacceptable than they first appear.
He profoundly affected those philosophers who
followed him including Bacon Descartes, Spinoza, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume,
Smith, Marx, and Nietzsche.
Early life and service to the Republic of
Florence.
He was born 3 May 1469 in Florence and became a
pupil of a renowned Latin teacher, Paolo da Ronciglione. It is thought he
attended the University of Florence.
It was an age of culture (Michelangelo
and Cesare Borgia) but Machiavelli turned away from lucrative alternatives
available to him to serve the city. Firstly he was Chancellor to the military
and then Secretary for foreign policy.
But In February 1513, when the regime was
overthrown by the Medici Family, he was arrested, imprisoned and tortured, He was released in March 1513 to begin his work writing “The
Prince”
His Ethics
Machiavelli’s is associated with treachery and
relentless self- interest. He might be regarded as an ethical consequentialist
E.g. that the end justifies the means to justify why he condoned murder and
repression for rulers when necessary to retain power to avoid even worse evil.
In The Prince, he states of “cruelties well-used”
to identify characters as cruel.
However, it should be noted that recent work has
suggested that many, if not all, of Machiavelli’s shocking moral claims are
ironic.
Virtues
The hallmarks of Machiavellian virtue are
self-reliance, self-assertion, self-discipline, and self-knowledge.
Virtue he attributes as meaning one relies upon
one’s self or one’s possessions, to abandon any reliance on nature, fortune,
tradition and so on.
Machiavelli describes a wise prince as one who is
never idle in peaceful times but instead use his industry to resist adversity
when fortune changes.
For Machiavelli, virtue includes a recognition of
the restraints or limitations within which one must work: not only one’s own
limits, but social ones, including conventional understandings of right and
wrong.
Are Fortune and virtue linked?
Machiavelli maintained that in order to rule over
an imperfect world of politics, inhabited by wolves, a ruler must not be meek
but rather adaptive, like a general in war. There are times once cannot adhere
to Christian values as fortune provides. In other words to aim to do what is
right where one can but if necessity dictates to do the opposite to prevent an
even greater evil.
On Religion
He suggests that religion is necessary and salutary
for public morality. The philosopher therefore is to take care not to disclose
any lack of belief. He is only to be concerned with any impoverished
interpretations of religion rather than religion as such.
Discourses on Livy
This appears to be a more measured approach to
republican teaching, possibly indicative of Machiavelli’s ultimate
position. The Discourses has stood the test of time to remain one of the
most important works in modern republican theory. It had an enormous effect on
republican thinkers such as Rousseau, Montesquieu, Hume, and particularly on
the American Founders.
Finally here are some selected quotes:
On existence
“The lion cannot protect himself from
traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a
fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.”
“There is no other way to guard
yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the
truth will not offend you.”
“Never was anything great
achieved without danger.”
“Because there are three classes of
intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what
others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the
showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, the
third is useless.”
“How we live is so different from how
we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is
done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation.”
“Where the willingness is great, the
difficulties cannot be great.”
He who seeks to deceive will always
find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.”
“Men in general judge more by the
sense of sight than by the sense of touch, because everyone can see but few can
test by feeling. Everyone sees what you seem to be, few know what you really
are; and those few do not dare take a stand against the general opinion.”
Cynicism
“Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.”
“It is much safer to be feared than
loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to
the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but
fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.”
“People should either be caressed or
crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you
cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it
in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance.”
“Since love and fear can hardly exist
together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than
loved”
“Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the
great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority
must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using
it, as necessity requires.”
Statesmanship
“The first method for estimating the
intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”
“Never was anything great achieved without danger.”
“I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow
it.”
“All courses of action are risky, so
prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and
acting decisively.
Develop the strength to do bold
things, not the strength to suffer.”
“He who wishes to be obeyed must know
how to command”
Conclusion
One might argue he has not abandoned a sense of
what is right to the vagaries of actual powerful rulers as in his later work
‘The Discourses”, since he writes of 'checks and balances' on power, the
powerful ruler and the people have a part in a constitution; liberty is
important but requires commensurate personal virtue to be effective.
Some have suggested because of his cynism
and advice in (The Prince) it was
an attempt to satirize the conduct of the princely rulers of Renaissance Italy.
Others regard his ideas as even more dangerous than they first appear when
taken on face value.
In summing up Machiavelli one finds the first
comprehensive narrative on political science, concerned only with setting out
what human beings are like and how power is maintained, with no intention of
passing moral judgment on the state of affairs described.
Questions
What do you think about it all? Is Machiavelli an
advocate for power and how it is best used to further one's aims?
Or is Machiavelli being Machiavellian and is really
telling us how political power is exercised, so we can change into something
better?
Look at the behaviour of the most powerful people
in politics and economic life. Are they following ethical 'oughts' and
'should's' or are they exemplars of Machiavelli's characters?
Should considerations of what should be done, be
guided by moral principles but also by a bit of Machiavelli insight? A bit of
Bulldog to go with Piety?
My Response
Machiavelli gave a good account as to the nature of
political power so that much of it remains
relevant today. Like Nietzsche philosophy, he wanted one to understand 'the will
to power' is inherently within us so that we are better to understand and equipped to deal with our
existence. That’s why the most powerful people fall down and remain today exemplars of Machiavelli’s characters.
Questions
By holding up a mirror to ourselves, does he challenge
us to become better? Is that a reasonable interpretation? Does Machiavelli
ultimately ask us to rise above considerations of utility? Does he, of all
people, ask us to rise above what we have come to see as Machiavellianism?
My Response
I think it is a reasonable interpretation and
possibly a redeeming element to his philosophy. There seems to be an element of
Frederick Nietzsche’s style here where Nietzsche wanted to shock his readers
into thinking more deeply about spiritual and existential issues before finally
making.
Although Darwin didn’t actually make this statement
it is generally accepted today to use the word fittest or fitter as a
hypothesis to his work.
However, to recap, he said a ruler must be as
cunning as a fox and as fierce as a lion. Machiavelli had an affinity with
nature and proposed we need to strive to be more adaptive in meeting changed
circumstances like nature. One might reasonably call that a form of
social Darwinism as nature doesn’t have any qualms about activity so long as it
ensures the survival of the fitter.
Hence I think one can say, Machiavelli concurs with
a form of social Darwinism that means leaders must constantly adapt to the
current circumstances just as does nature. That doesn’t necessarily mean the strong
always pray on the weak and so forth but more a matter of adapting to the
prevailing conditions.
Your ideas or answers are always greatly
appreciated.
