Transition to Modern Thought: Machiavelli PDF

# TRANSITION TO MODERN THOUGHT: MACHIAVELLI ## Introductory - Traced the development of political thought in the West from its beginnings in ancient Greece - Greek political thought was influenced by the nature of the city state - The Middle Ages were dominated by (1) the idea of a universal societ...

# TRANSITION TO MODERN THOUGHT: MACHIAVELLI ## Introductory - Traced the development of political thought in the West from its beginnings in ancient Greece - Greek political thought was influenced by the nature of the city state - The Middle Ages were dominated by (1) the idea of a universal society organized under two different heads, the Pope and the Emperor (2) the general acceptance of the Christian Church as the ultimate authority - This meant that faith and revelation were superior to reason - This also meant that worldly interests were subordinate to spiritual ends ## Transition from Medieval to Modern Europe - The period between the death of Marsilio in 1343 and the births of Machiavelli in 1469 was the beginning of a great intellectual and spiritual revolution known as the Renaissance - This period also saw a great political upheaval - The Empire and the Papacy lost power and prestige - Strong national monarchies came into being in Western Europe - The national monarchs gathered all political power in their own hands, which was previously dispersed among feudatories ## The New State - The new state that was fast taking shape was secular and national - Its secularism signified the separation of religion and politics, and the independence of the state of all control by the church - Its national character implied that the bond which united the citizens under a common government was the sentiment of national unity - The nation-state system did not attain maturity before the 18th century - The political changes that took place during this period laid the foundations of the modern secular, national, sovereign state - The triumph of the sovereign, secular, nation-state meant the disappearance of the Middle Ages and the birth of the modern world - The ground of the concentration of political power in the hands of ruling monarchs had been prepared by the changes in the economic sphere which had been going on for a long time. - Political power was decentralized and trade was largely local during the Middle Ages - The paucity of means of communication meant that the monarch's effective authority was limited - The new merchant class sided with the king in his efforts to bring the feudal nobility under his control and thus greatly facilitated the rejection of the medieval idea of limited monarchy and prepared the way for the growth of absolutism ## Transition to Modern Thought: Machiavelli - The period between the death of Marsilio in 1343 and the births of Machiavelli in 1469 was the beginning of a great intellectual and spiritual revolution known as the Renaissance - This period also saw a great political upheaval - The Empire and the Papacy lost power and prestige - Strong national monarchies came into being in Western Europe - The national monarchs gathered all political power in their own hands, which was previously dispersed among feudatories ## The New State - The new state that was fast taking shape was secular and national - Its secularism signified the separation between religion and politics, and the independence of the state of all control by the church - Its national character implied that the bond which united the citizens under a common government was the sentiment of national unity - The nation-state system did not attain maturity before the 18th century - The political changes that took place during this period laid the foundations of the modern secular, national, sovereign state - The triumph of the sovereign, secular, nation-state meant the disappearance of the Middle Ages and the birth of the modern world - The ground of the concentration of political power in the hands of ruling monarchs had been prepared by the changes in the economic sphere which had been going on for a long time. - Political power was decentralized and trade was largely local during the Middle Ages - The paucity of means of communication meant that the monarch's effective authority was limited - The new merchant class sided with the king in his efforts to bring the feudal nobility under his control and thus greatly facilitated the rejection of the medieval idea of limited monarchy and prepared the way for the growth of absolutism ## Machiavelli - Machiavelli was born in a minor aristocratic family of Florence and was connected with the conduct of the foreign affairs of his city. - He was a major artist who shaped the political thinking of his time - Machiavelli was born in a minor aristocratic family of Florence and was connected with the conduct of the foreign affairs of his city. - The facts that exercised the profoundest influence on Machiavelli and determined his political philosophy may be summed up under the following heads: - the political division of Italy and the resulting disorderly, factious and corrupt conditions that prevailed in the country - the monarchic reaction which had swept away almost all the vestiges of medieval representative institutions - The Renaissance, which was strongest in Florence, the birthplace of Machiavelli - frustration of his own personal ambition and disillusionment with the moral standards of the politicians of his own times ## The Practical Aspect of the Political Ideas of Machiavelli - Books are treatises on the art of government and not of the theory of the state - Governments may be made strong by the right means - Machiavelli believed that the policies by which governments can expand their power and the errors which they must avoid if they are to prosper and flourish are important. - He was not interested in academic and theoretical questions - He enquired about the causes of the sad plight of Italy and found they were disunion, disorder, defenselessness, and devastation by hordes of foreigners. - Machiavelli concluded that what Italy needed was a strong and unscrupulous prince or tyrant. - Machiavelli did not commend a republican form of government which presupposes virtuous, honest and patriotic citizens - He concluded that a dictator was painful but a temporary necessity - This was in harmony with the fact that during that period strong men ruled in both the secular state and the church - The sole end of a prince was to make the country strong and united, establish peace and order and expel the foreign invader - For this noble end any means would be satisfactory ## Machiavelli's Theory of Human Motives - Machiavelli starts with a fundamental assumption about the nature of man and the motives which impel him to action - He states that men are born bad - Men are a compound of weaknesses, folly and knavery, intended by nature to be the dupe of the cunning, the prey of despotic, ungrateful, fickle, deceitful, cowardly and avaricious. - They are bad and depraved, none of them does any good unless obliged - Machiavelli states that men are immediately filled with confusion and disorder when they are free to do as they like - He argues that men are more prone to evil than good - Machiavelli assumes that men are bad and will follow the wickedness of their own hearts, when opportunity is present - What makes them bad and depraved is their innate selfishness and aggressiveness - Everyone wants to have the best things for himself and to have as much of them as possible - There is no limit to human desires, so human beings find themselves in a state of perpetual strife and competition - This results in complete anarchy unless they are restrained by the force of law - The vulgar masses are mainly interested in security so they agree to the restraints imposed upon them by law - Once these basic needs are satisfied, they begin to_desire other things: e.g., wealth and power. - The individual seeks these additional things only for himself and his family - He co-operates with other members of the state in their pursuit because he realizes that without such co-operation there would be the war of every one against every one and the attainment of security impossible. - These are the main implications of Machiavelli's theory of human nature ## Machiavelli's Theory of Human Motives - Machiavelli starts with a fundamental assumption about the nature of man and the motives which impel him to action - He states that men are born bad - Men are a compound of weaknesses, folly and knavery, intended by nature to be the dupe of the cunning, the prey of despotic, ungrateful, fickle, deceitful, cowardly and avaricious. - They are bad and depraved, none of them does any good unless obliged. - Machiavelli states that men are immediately filled with confusion and disorder when they are free to do as they like - He argues that men are more prone to evil than good - Machiavelli assumes that men are bad and will follow the wickedness of their own hearts, when opportunity is present - What makes them bad and depraved is their innate selfishness and aggressiveness - Everyone wants to have the best things for himself and to have as much of them as possible - There is no limit to human desires, so human beings find themselves in a state of perpetual strife and competition - This results in complete anarchy unless they are restrained by the force of law - The vulgar masses are mainly interested in security, so they agree to the restraints imposed upon them by law - Once these basic needs are satisfied, they begin to_desire other things: wealth and power. - The individual seeks these additional things only for himself and his family - He co-operates with other members of the state in their pursuit because he realizes that without such co-operation there would be the war of every one against every one and the attainment of security impossible. ## Political Ideas of Machiavelli: - One of the key marks of Machiavelli's political philosophy was his formal and conscious separation from politics from religion and morality - No earlier thinker ancient or medieval, went so far in keeping politics out of morals and religion. - In so far as Aristotle discussed the preservation of states without reference to the question of their goodness or badness, he may be said to have separated politics from ethics - This was not an essential feature of his political philosophy - He definitely regarded politics and ethics as constituting one whole science - In Machiavelli, the separation of politics from ethics and religion is deliberate and complete. ## The Practical Aspect of the Political Ideas of Machiavelli - Books are treatises on the art of government, not on the theory of the state - Governments may be made strong by the right means - Machiavelli believed that the policies by which governments can expand their power and the errors which they must avoid if they are to prosper and flourish are important - He was not interested in academic and theoretical questions - He enquired about the causes of the sad plight of Italy and found they were disunion, disorder, defenselessness, and devastation by hordes of foreigners - Machiavelli concluded that what Italy needed was a strong and unscrupulous prince or tyrant - Machiavelli did not recommend a republican form of government which presupposes virtuous, honest and patriotic citizens - He concluded that a dictator was painful but a temporary necessity - This was in harmony with the fact that during that period strong men ruled in both the secular state and the church - The sole end of prince was to make the country strong and united, establish peace and order and expel the foreign invader - For this noble end any means would be satisfactory ## Machiavelli's Theory of Human Motives - Machiavelli starts with a fundamental assumption about the nature of man and the motives which impel him to action - He states that men are born bad - Men are a compound of weaknesses, folly and knavery, intended by nature to be the dupe of the cunning, the prey of despotic, ungrateful, fickle, deceitful, cowardly and avaricious - They are bad and depraved, none of them does any good unless obliged - Machiavelli states that men are immediately filled with confusion and disorder when they are free to do as they like - He argues that men are more prone to evil than good - Machiavelli assumes that men are bad and will follow the wickedness of their hearts, when opportunity is present - What makes them bad and depraved is their innate selfishness and aggressiveness - Everyone wants to have the best things for himself and to have as much of them as possible - There is no limit to human desires, so human beings find themselves in a state of perpetual strife and competition - This results in complete anarchy unless they are restrained by the force of law - The vulgar masses are mainly interested in security, so they agree to the restraints imposed upon them by law - Once these basic needs are satisfied, they begin to desire other things: wealth and power. - The individual seeks these additional things only for himself and his family - He co-operates with other members of the state in their pursuit because he realizes that without such co-operation there would be the war of every one against every one and the attainment of security impossible. ## Political Ideas of Machiavelli: - One of the key marks of Machiavelli's political philosophy was his formal and conscious separation from politics from religion and morality - No earlier thinker ancient or medieval, went so far in keeping politics out of morals and religion. - In so far as Aristotle discussed the preservation of states without reference to the question of their goodness or badness, he may be said to have separated politics from ethics - This was not an essential feature of his political philosophy - He definitely regarded politics and ethics as constituting one whole science - In Machiavelli, the separation of politics from ethics and religion is deliberate and complete. ## Further breakdown of Machiavelli's work: - Machiavelli is interested more in the policies by which states expand their power than in the theory of the state. - The criterion by which he measures the success or failure of governmental policies is the preservation and increase of power. - Machiavelli does not attempt to propound a systematic philosophy of right - He's more interested in practical problems - Machiavelli adopts the empirical or historical method of investigation - He is the first thinker after Aristotle to apply the inductive or empirical method of enquiry to political science - Machiavelli appeals to history and reason - He shifted the basis of political science and emancipated the state from bondage to ecclesiastical authorities - The prince was the first work in which two authorities, divine and human, were clearly seen in collision, and in which the venerable axioms of earlier generations were rejected as practically misleading and theoretically unsound - He was a product of the Renaissance - He was not wholly scientific in his method - His thought became one of the important features of modern thought - Machiavelli starts with a fundamental assumption about the nature of man and the motives which impel him to action. - He states that men are born bad - He provides a list of reasons why he thinks men are bad including: ungrateful, fickle, deceitful, cowardly and avaricious - Machiavelli states that men are immediately filled with confusion and disorder when they are free to do as they like - The main goal of a prince is to keep faith when such observance may be turned against him - The qualities in respect of which the Prince should appear to have are skillfulness in feigning and dissembling - It's important for the prince to seem to be of the embodiment of mercy, good faith, integrity, kindliness and religion - Machiavelli believes religion and morality play an important role in the political life of a community ## Conclusion: - Machiavelli attaches an instrumental value to religion - It has no intrinsic or objective value - Religion only has value as a tool for politicians to influence people. - Machiavelli was pagan and rejected the Christian view of religion ## Further thoughts: - Machiavelli made the following three points to support his belief that the state should outweigh all other considerations. - The State is the highest form of social organisation - The State is important to the protection and promotion of human welfare - The State is the only thing that can adequately protect citizens and secure the common good. - Machiavelli advised the Prince to throw to the wind all moral considerations and act in complete disregard of them whenever the interest of the state required such a course - He states, 'Let the Prince look to the maintenance of the state: the means will always be deemed honourable and will receive general approbation, - To Machiavelli, morality is not a part of the mechanics of power, he believed that a prince must look to the best interests of his people but not necessarily to the moral and altruistic means of doing so ## Machiavelli on the Legislator: - Machiavelli believed that the role of the lawgiver was critical - He understood that force and fear were not enough to create laws that would shape a society ## Machiavelli's view on Republics and Monarchies: - Machiavelli believes that there is no singular form of government that works best, he instead believes that the best form of governance depends on the social and economics conditions of the state - He believes that republics are most successful where there is a substantial equality of wealth and property, leading to a great dispersion of political power - Machiavelli believes that a republic should have people who: - are virtuous - are public-spirited - are united - are strong - are independent - He believes that a republic should have a common tradition, a common language, and a common system of law ## Conclusion: - Machiavelli made the following three points to support his belief that the state should outweigh all other considerations - The State is the highest form of social organisation & important to the protection and promotion of human welfare. - The State is the only thing that can adequately protect citizens and secure the common good. - Machiavelli advised the Prince to throw to the wind all moral considerations and act in complete disregard of them whenever the interest of the state required such a course - He states, 'Let the Prince look to the maintenance of the state: the means will always be deemed honourable and will receive general approbation, - To Machiavelli, morality is not a part of the mechanics of power-- he believed that a prince must look to the best interests of his people but not necessarily to the moral and altruistic means of doing so ## Machiavelli on the Legislator: - Machiavelli believed that the role of the lawgiver was critical - He understood that force and fear were not enough to create laws that would shape a society ## Machiavelli's view on Republics and Monarchies: - Machiavelli believes that there is no singular form of government that works best, he instead believes that the best form of governance depends on the social and economics conditions of the state - He believes that republics are most successful where there is a substantial equality of wealth and property, leading to a great dispersion of political power - Machiavelli believes that a republic should have people who: - are virtuous - are public-spirited - are united - are strong - are independent - He believes that a republic should have a common tradition, a common language, and a common system of law ## Conclusion: - Machiavelli made the following three points to support his belief that the state should outweigh all other considerations - The State is the highest form of social organisation & important to the protection and promotion of human welfare. - The State is the only thing that can adequately protect citizens and secure the common good. - Machiavelli advised the Prince to throw to the wind all moral considerations and act in complete disregard of them whenever the interest of the state required such a course - He states, 'Let the Prince look to the maintenance of the state: the means will always be deemed honourable and will receive general approbation, - To Machiavelli, morality is not a part of the mechanics of power-- he believed that a prince must look to the best interests of his people but not necessarily to the moral and altruistic means of doing so ## Machiavelli on the Legislator: - Machiavelli believed that the role of the lawgiver was critical - He understood that force and fear were not enough to create laws that would shape a society # Machiavelli's view on Republics and Monarchies: - Machiavelli believes that there is no singular form of government that works best, he instead believes that the best form of governance depends on the social and economics conditions of the state - He believes that republics are most successful where there is a substantial equality of wealth and property, leading to a great dispersion of political power - Machiavelli believes that a republic should have people who: - are virtuous - are public-spirited - are united - are strong - are independent - He believes that a republic should have a common tradition, a common language, and a common system of law ## Conclusion: - Machiavelli made the following three points to support his belief that the state should outweigh all other considerations - The State is the highest form of social organisation & important to the protection and promotion of human welfare. - The State is the only thing that can adequately protect citizens and secure the common good. - Machiavelli advised the Prince to throw to the wind all moral considerations and act in complete disregard of them whenever the interest of the state required such a course - He states, 'Let the Prince look to the maintenance of the state: the means will always be deemed honourable and will receive general approbation, - To Machiavelli, morality is not a part of the mechanics of power-- he believed that a prince must look to the best interests of his people but not necessarily to the moral and altruistic means of doing so ## Machiavelli on the Legislator: - Machiavelli believed that the role of the lawgiver was critical - He understood that force and fear were not enough to create laws that would shape a society ## Machiavelli's view on Republics and Monarchies: - Machiavelli believes that there is no singular form of government that works best, he instead believes that the best form of governance depends on the social and economics conditions of the state - He believes that republics are most successful where there is a substantial equality of wealth and property, leading to a great dispersion of political power - Machiavelli believes that a republic should have people who: - are virtuous - are public-spirited - are united - are strong - are independent - He believes that a republic should have a common tradition, a common language, and a common system of law ## Conclusion: - Machiavelli made the following three points to support his belief that the state should outweigh all other considerations - The State is the highest form of social organisation & important to the protection and promotion of human welfare. - The State is the only thing that can adequately protect citizens and secure the common good. - Machiavelli advised the Prince to throw to the wind all moral considerations and act in complete disregard of them whenever the interest of the state required such a course - He states, 'Let the Prince look to the maintenance of the state: the means will always be deemed honourable and will receive general approbation, - To Machiavelli, morality is not a part of the mechanics of power-- he believed that a prince must look to the best interests of his people but not necessarily to the moral and altruistic means of doing so ## Machiavelli on the Legislator: - Machiavelli believed that the role of the lawgiver was critical - He understood that force and fear were not enough to create laws that would shape a society ## Machiavelli's view on Republics and Monarchies: - Machiavelli believes that there is no singular form of government that works best, he instead believes that the best form of governance depends on the social and economics conditions of the state - He believes that republics are most successful where there is a substantial equality of wealth and property, leading to a great dispersion of political power - Machiavelli believes that a republic should have people who: - are virtuous - are public-spirited - are united - are strong - are independent - He believes that a republic should have a common tradition, a common language, and a common system of law ## Conclusion: - Machiavelli made the following three points to support his belief that the state should outweigh all other considerations - The State is the highest form of social organisation & important to the protection and promotion of human welfare. - The State is the only thing that can adequately protect citizens and secure the common good. - Machiavelli advised the Prince to throw to the wind all moral considerations and act in complete disregard of them whenever the interest of the state required such a course - He states, 'Let the Prince look to the maintenance of the state: the means will always be deemed honourable and will receive general approbation, - To Machiavelli, morality is not a part of the mechanics of power-- he believed that a prince must look to the best interests of his people but not necessarily to the moral and altruistic means of doing so ## Machiavelli on the Legislator: - Machiavelli believed that the role of the lawgiver was critical - He understood that force and fear were not enough to create laws that would shape a society ## Machiavelli's view on Republics and Monarchies: - Machiavelli believes that there is no singular form of government that works best, he instead believes that the best form of governance depends on the social and economics conditions of the state - He believes that republics are most successful where there is a substantial equality of wealth and property, leading to a great dispersion of political power - Machiavelli believes that a republic should have people who: - are virtuous - are public-spirited - are united - are strong - are independent - He believes that a republic should have a common tradition, a common language, and a common system of law