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It would become one of Machiavelli's most famous maxims. [49] Machiavelli's view that acquiring a state and maintaining it requires evil means has been noted as the chief theme of the treatise. [50] Machiavelli has become infamous for such political advice, ensuring that he would be remembered in history through the adjective "Machiavellian". [51]
The Prince's contribution to the history of political thought is the fundamental break between political realism and political idealism. [32] Niccolò Machiavelli's best-known book exposits and describes the arts with which a ruling prince can maintain control of his realm.
Machiavellianism (or Machiavellism) is widely defined as the political philosophy of the Italian Renaissance diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli, usually associated with realism in foreign and domestic politics, and with the view that those who lead governments must prioritize the stability of the regime over ethical concerns.
This is one of Machiavelli's most lasting influences upon modernity. Nevertheless, Machiavelli was heavily influenced by classical pre-Christian political philosophy . According to Strauss (1958 :291) Machiavelli refers to Xenophon more than Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero put together.
The Art of War is divided into a preface (proemio) and seven books (chapters), which take the form of a series of dialogues that take place in the Orti Oricellari, the gardens built in a classical style by Bernardo Rucellai in the 1490s for Florentine aristocrats and humanists to engage in discussion, between Cosimo Rucellai and "Lord Fabrizio Colonna" (many feel Colonna is a veiled disguise ...
In Plato's dialogues, the soul plays many disparate roles. Among other things, Plato believes that the soul is what gives life to the body (which was articulated most of all in the Laws and Phaedrus) in terms of self-motion: to be alive is to be capable of moving oneself; the soul is a self-mover. He also thinks that the soul is the bearer of ...
Machiavelli, after all, lived at a similar inflection point in history. Florence, one of the great Renaissance republics, was being transformed into a monarchy even at the moment he was writing.
Thomas Hobbes (England, 1588–1679) theorized that government is the result of individual actions and human traits, and that it was motivated primarily by "interest", a term which would become crucial in the development of a liberal theory of government and political economy, since it is the foundation of the idea that individuals can be self ...