Niccolo Machiavelli

Life
● Born: 3 May, 1469 (Florence, Italy)
● Died: 21 June 1527 (Florence, Italy)
● Diplomat, statesman, writer, and historian
● Senior officer
○ Diplomatic and military affairs
● Second chancery officer
● Witnessed the deteriorating stability of Italy due to French invasion throughout his lifetime
● Witnessed the brutality of how Caesar Borgia obtain and retain power
● Witnessed how Girolamo Savonarola, a friar and ruler was hanged and burned in a public square
○ Referred to in The Prince as an unarmed prophet who must fail
● After the failed ruling of Soderini, the Medici family came back to power with the help of the Spanish
army
○ Soderini was later referred to in The Discourses as “gentle, well-intentioned man forced to choose
between destroying his enemy or observing legal niceties which allows his enemies to destroy
him”
○ Believed that the loss of power of Soderini was due to his own refusal to use violence against
political opponents
● After the Medici family retrieved their power, Machiavelli removed from position and got falsely
accused and imprisoned
○ Wrote The Prince
Life - Analysis
● The fact that Machiavelli was involved in military affairs might enable him to see the flaws of using
mercenary and influenced his support of the prince having his own arms.
● With past experiences of witnessing a brutal leader who could get power and retain it well with the
use of violence in contrast to a morally good leader who couldn’t keep their power, Machiavelli might
be influenced to have the idea of the prince who have the ability to exercise their power well in order
to be successful in ruling despite the lack of moral
○ Might also affect his ideas in such way that moral was given less importance
Work
● Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius (The Discourses)
● The Prince
● The Art of War
● The History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy (Florentine Histories)
● Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius (The Discourses)
○ A commentary book on the work of Roman historian Titus Livy
○ Criticizes Roman Church and Christianity
○ Stated Machiavelli’s support on Republicanism
● The art of war
○ The nature of war
○ Suitable leader in a war
○ Military
● The History of Florence and of the Affairs of Italy (Florentine Histories)
○ Machiavelli’s longest work
○ Details the rise of corrupt system of foreign affairs in Italy dominated by mercenary arms meddling
○ Criticized Christianity and popes
○ “Arms”
● The Prince
○ Nature of People
○ Characteristic that a prince shall have
○ “arms”
Ideas
● Nature of Human
○ Fickle, unloyal, ungrateful, and avid of profit
○ Love is a bond that will be broken when it suits an individual to do so
○ Fear would be able to hold people in order better than laws or love
● Nature of War
○ Inevitable and inherent
○ Political objective behind the war = limit of the war
● Arms/Military
○ Should be citizen militia
○ Mercenaries are dangerous and useless
○ Auxiliary arms are harmful. When they win, you will be beholden
● Power
○ Violence is necessary in keeping power
○ To retain power, the leader should carefully balance the interest of various institutions.
○ Corrupting moral rules would help stabilizing the power easier
○ Power, not justice, is the key unit in politics
○ Goodness do not ensure power and good person does not have more authority through the
virtue of being good
○ Through proper use of power, an individual could be brought to obedience
● The Prince/ The Leader
○ Two methods of fighting: the prince being lion, and the prince being fox
○ A good leader should be respected and supported by the citizen due to the intelligence in ruling
○ The leader should be feared
○ The leader should be able to analyze the situation objectives and should be able to deceive their
enemy in wars in order to gain victory
○ Having the ‘criminal virtue’: strength, bravery, ruthlessness, strategy, and wisdom
● Republics
○ Goal of political order is the freedom of the community (vivere libero)
○ A republic must be founded by an individual, and should be perfected by others when the
founder passed away
○ The best government is a properly constituted republican government (even better than the
most excellent monarchy)
○ Debate is the most effective way to determine the best action and the best leader
○ Humans tend to prefer republic than principality
● The End Justifies the Means (Suggested, Not Mentioned Explicitly)
○ “For although the act condemns the doer, the end may justify him…” (From The Discourses I)
Works & Ideas - Analysis
● In Machiavelli’s point of view, power = most important
● Second important = war & militia
● Show the admiration of the ancient Rome and the republic form of government
Impact
● Impact on Other Political Philosophers
○ John Locke
■ The Fable of Bees
● There is no need to conform or to be concerned with the common good as
individuals are free to pursue their selfish goals and are encouraged to do so.
○ Rene Descartes
■ mastery of nature and the power to harness the mastery of nature.
● Corollates with Machiavelli’s thought → believes that people have a way to harness
the chaos of nature.
■ Church and civil society
● how the church (abiding to the moral codes) make people weak.
○ Nietzsche
■ Master-slave morality
● Good = noble, strong and powerful , Bad =weak, cowardly, and petty
● The strong originates the master morality, the weak originates the slave morality
● Machiavellianism / Machiavellian
○ A term coined after Machiavelli’s passing
■ Involved with the usage of intelligent strategy and cunning in order to gain power and get
one up on a rival, even the individual playing the politics isn’t a human being.
○ Le Machiavélisme
■ Believed that Machiavelli’s ideas (Machiavellianism) would not end and would continue
in the form of “perpetual Machiavellianism.
● Father of Constitutionalism
● Father of Republicanism
Impact - Analysis
● The resemblance of Machiavelli’s ideas in other political philosopher’s ideas/ the play written by
Shakespeare shows that Machiavelli’s idea have impacts on the thoughts of others
● Le Machiavélisme shows that the impact of Machiavelli’s ideas and writings remains even after his
passing. Moreover, the fact that the book is written by a French and was written about 400 years after
Machiavelli’s death confirms that the impact of Machiavelli and his ideas is widespread and remaining