Political Philosophy Part 1
Week 5: Machiavelli
Links:
Summary:
1. Introduction:
Machiavelli and his reputation
- ‘Old Nic’
- was he a philosopher (or a ‘political sociologist’?)
- political ‘realism.’
2. Context:
2.1 Changes in
thought and politics in the early modern period (16th century):
- secularism
- individualism (sovereignty of the individual) and consequent mechanistic outlook on
the state
- nationalism (sovereignty of kings, princes etc i.e. secular national rulers)
- rationalism (in Machiavelli, ‘realism’ and power-politics).
2. 2 Situating Machiavelli
historically (*):
2.1 Renaissance (of classical learning), + ‘virtu’ and practicalities of rule
2.2
2.3 Machiavelli’s career (diplomacy, imprisonment), and its impact on his writing
(especially his views on religion and power).
3. Key aspects of
Machiavelli’s thought, as shown in the extracts:
- from the Discourses on Livy: a republican outlook
From The Prince:
1 the nature of political power
2 acquiring political power
3 human nature…
4 effective rule
5 ‘economy of cruelty’
6 ruler and people
7 religion
8 ‘arms’ and mercenaries
9 utopias
10 the reputation of the prince, being loved or feared, appearing to be moral
11 the prince and the common people
12 ‘fate’ (fortuna) and ‘prowess’ (virtu).
(*)
Other figures from the period:
Christopher
Columbus: 1451 – 1506 Leonardo da
Vinci: 1452 – 1519
Nicholas
Copernicus: 1473 – 1543 Michelangelo: 1475 – 1564
Cesare
Borgia: 1476 – 1507 Thomas More: 1478 – 1535
Martin Luther: 1483
- 1546 Jean Calvin: 1509 – 1564