POSC 101 Lecture 13: Lecture-13# Machiavelli
22 Dec 2018
School
Department
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Professor
● Psoc 101 Lecture #13 Machiavelli
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1572)
❖ Florence italy
➢ City states
■ Constantly overturned by foreign invaders
❖ First political philosophy that is neither based on rationality or religion
➢ Renaissance
■ Secular and individualistic
● Free of external restraints
❖ Copernicus
➢ Changed people’s social ideas of earth as being special
■ Church had a problem with this view
■ Roman catholic church of the middle ages
❖ Nations are constructed by people. It doesn’t happen through divine institution.
People decide to have a god and build and accomplish goals through that
society.
❖ Machiavelli exiled for not being loyal
❖ The Prince
➢ Effective leader
➢ Change in political leadership
➢ 2 goals
■ 1.) get back into government work
■ 2.) call for stability of Italian nation state
❖ Realism- What kind of leader do you actually need to be effective
❖ People should be treated with their selfish motives intact
❖ Actions of your public life and private life are independent of each other
❖ It is better to be loved than feared
➢ Able to adjust to shifting circumstances
➢ Manipulate
➢ Gain respect and control
❖ Power is a positive concept
❖ There is no good and evil only what is achievable
➢ The ends justify the means
❖ His view on human nature comes from the Sophist point of view
➢ People’s desire to obtain things and be selfish is ordinary and expected
➢ It is better to be loved than feared- self interest
➢ Against the earlier political teachings of the ancients (reason overcoming
appetites) and medieval (faith overcoming sin)
Document Summary
First political philosophy that is neither based on rationality or religion. Changed people"s social ideas of earth as being special. Church had a problem with this view. Roman catholic church of the middle ages. People decide to have a god and build and accomplish goals through that society. 2. ) call for stability of italian nation state. Realism- what kind of leader do you actually need to be effective. People should be treated with their selfish motives intact. Actions of your public life and private life are independent of each other. It is better to be loved than feared. There is no good and evil only what is achievable. His view on human nature comes from the sophist point of view. People"s desire to obtain things and be selfish is ordinary and expected. It is better to be loved than feared- self interest. Against the earlier political teachings of the ancients (reason overcoming appetites) and medieval (faith overcoming sin)
