Comparing The Prince And The Discourses
Many political philosophers agreed that there is a correlation between moral goodness and legitimate authority until Niccolo Machiavelli came along. He believed that there is no moral basis on which to judge the difference between legitimate and illegitimate uses of power and this is why he is one of the most controversial philosophers who ever placed pen to paper. Machiavelli was born on May 3, 1469 in Florence, Italy. He was brought up in a family of public servants and rapidly developed a strong interest in politics. Overtime he began his government service during the Medici family’s exile. When the Medici family returned to power in 1512, he was imprisoned for some time. During his time in jail, he created The Prince and some parts of The
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Throughout both of these works his opinion of using violence when needed has never changed. In the Discourses he states that if you need to resort to violence in order to seize power so you can reconstruct the constitution of a city so that it fosters political liberty, go for it. (Machiavelli 1994,129). Likewise, in The Prince Machiavelli justifies the use of violence by stating that it can be used in the interests of safeguarding the state (Machiavelli 1994, 48). He makes this bold statement since he believes people are by nature envious and this bad nature stops them from making reasonable compromises and decisions even though those decisions could actually be in their best interests (Machiavelli 1994, 82). He goes on to claim that although everyone wants freedom for himself or herself, they will always have feel the need to oppress others for reasons like jealousy. Knowing this, he suggests that you must be willing to fight since cruelty cannot be avoided all the time. However, he makes it clear that it is not acceptable to commit random acts of violence. Although advocating cruelty may label Machiavelli a teacher of evil, we must keep in mind that he advocates for it since he believes everyone has the ability to be cruel and since everyone is self-interested, violence is the only answer in situations. That view is evident in today’s society where we recognize that people are much quicker to criticize than to praise what others have done for the reason that they never want someone to be better than them. If they feel like someone is better than them they get jealous and may end up causing harm. He further discusses this in book one of The Discourses when he states people can easily become corrupted and think about engaging in cruel acts no matter how good and polite they are (Machiavelli 1994, 139). People can be easily
Throughout both of these works his opinion of using violence when needed has never changed. In the Discourses he states that if you need to resort to violence in order to seize power so you can reconstruct the constitution of a city so that it fosters political liberty, go for it. (Machiavelli 1994,129). Likewise, in The Prince Machiavelli justifies the use of violence by stating that it can be used in the interests of safeguarding the state (Machiavelli 1994, 48). He makes this bold statement since he believes people are by nature envious and this bad nature stops them from making reasonable compromises and decisions even though those decisions could actually be in their best interests (Machiavelli 1994, 82). He goes on to claim that although everyone wants freedom for himself or herself, they will always have feel the need to oppress others for reasons like jealousy. Knowing this, he suggests that you must be willing to fight since cruelty cannot be avoided all the time. However, he makes it clear that it is not acceptable to commit random acts of violence. Although advocating cruelty may label Machiavelli a teacher of evil, we must keep in mind that he advocates for it since he believes everyone has the ability to be cruel and since everyone is self-interested, violence is the only answer in situations. That view is evident in today’s society where we recognize that people are much quicker to criticize than to praise what others have done for the reason that they never want someone to be better than them. If they feel like someone is better than them they get jealous and may end up causing harm. He further discusses this in book one of The Discourses when he states people can easily become corrupted and think about engaging in cruel acts no matter how good and polite they are (Machiavelli 1994, 139). People can be easily