Niccolo Machiavelli and His Most Famous Work "The Prince"

Born May 3rd 1469 (happy belated 551st birthday) in Florence, Italy, Machiavelli is one of the most notable philosophers in the history of the world. Often called the father of modern political science, he is best known for essentially creating and really subscribing to the "ends justify the means" ideology. This ideology is best outlined in absolutely his most famous work, The Prince. 

[M]en judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, because it belongs to everybody to see you, to few to come in touch with you. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are, and those few dare not oppose themselves to the opinion of the many, who have the majesty of the state to defend them; and in the actions of all men, and especially of princes, which it is not prudent to challenge, one judges by the result.

For that reason, let a prince have the credit of conquering and holding his state, the means will always be considered honest, and he will be praised by everybody because the vulgar are always taken by what a thing seems to be and by what comes of it; and in the world there are only the vulgar, for the few find a place there only when the many have no ground to rest on.

This excerpt from chapter XVIII of The Prince, our man Machiavelli is telling us that everything is ll about appearances. He tells us that according to his understanding, most judge by what they see from a distance, rather than getting to really know most. Because most have an idea of what people are form afar, the few who perhaps don't see it that way won't argue with the views of the many. This thought particularly comes into play with the rulers, whom he gives an excuse to do anything they must to preserve the state the titular prince may rule. Machiavelli argues that clearly the ends justify the means, because the means will be considered honest, even though often they are anything but. 

Here is a great video breaking down his darker view on how politicians should behave and rule

 There is another side to what many think about this famous work, however, and this thought is backed by not just some future college student trying to pry and make an interesting point to get get his peers thinking, but rather by another famous philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He claims that the Florentine political ideologist was absolutely a shot at the Medici family, whom he was captured and tortured by, exposing how they ruled was entirely cynical and ill-begotten. This observation finds even sturdier ground to stand on when one considers that Machiavelli wrote several satirical comedies filled with harsh jabs aimed at the politics at the time.

Award-winning writer Salman Rushdie discusses the misunderstandings of how history has portrayed Machiavelli here

All in all, I believe that Machiavelli would be disappointed to see that the history books perceive him as being perhaps the most famous cynic to ever live. Especially considering how much he volleyed for a republic and freedom of speech in his other famous work, Discourses on Livy, which in some parts appear to toe the line of disputing his earlier writings in The Prince. Even though he synonymous with the famous saying "the ends justify the means," he actually never says that. Furthermore, after he recommends some of the heinous things the history books remember him for, Machiavelli says to never do more than you absolutely must to maintain peace, and in his later works, he says that freedom of speech is the key to a successful republic, which is the type of ruling system he recommended.

Here is another great read discussing how Machiavelli is misunderstood that is very well written and insightful.

Ultimately, he ended up being remembered for the thing he criticized, a harsh one-man ruling body, and least attributed to perhaps the one idea that he believed in, a working republic. His most famous works, and one of the most famous works in human history is being taken straightforward, when in reality we have been taking his work completely out of context after analyzing this work compared to not only his other works, but also who he was as a person, which is to say not a cynic as Rushdie outlined in the above video. Machiavelli deserves more credit as a true advocate of the modern republic during a time when city states were governed by brutal ruling families.


I commented on these final posts:
https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2020/05/final-report-blog-david-hume.html?showComment=1588651215571#c8044416416139526204

https://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2020/05/final-post-erin-rone-section-05.html

Post spring break runs: 5
Pre spring break runs: 28 maybe 29?
Section 11