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Machiavelli and The Prince. Your midterms. Congrats to those who did well! Common mistakes:
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Your midterms • Congrats to those who did well! • Common mistakes: • 1) the argument is so obvious and/or generic and/or statement-of-fact that it does not even qualify as an argument (e.g. ‘my paper will argue that the relationship between politics and religion changed over time’, or ‘my paper will argue that religion was important in the Middle Ages’) • 2) too much narrative, not enough ANALYSIS (e.g. ‘the investiture controversy started with Gregory VII and Henry IV, and then Gregory won and after some time Boniface lost’, as opposed to: what do these controversies mean? What caused them? What kind of implications did they have? etc.) • 3) too many incorrect generalizations (e.g., ‘Since the dawn of mankind religion has always been the most important aspect’: really? and when did the dawn of mankind actually begin? are you sure that religion was THE most important aspect? And where is your evidence for this claim?) • 4) No historical context (e.g. the relationship between politics and religion can be seen from two cases, Gregory and Henry, and Boniface and Philip) • 5) attention to grammar! (e.g. ‘Gregory was more powerful THEN Henry, THAT was the emperor’) • 6) Introduction and conclusion: often they are your weakest points • If you want to talk about the grade of the essay: • 1) First, talk with your TA • 2) After you talk with your TA, feel free to come to my office hours and we will discuss your essay!
Niccolo’ Machiavelli (1469-1527): a man for many seasons and for none
1494-1498: the Italian Wars 1494: Charles VIII of France invades Italy The league of Venice against Charles 1492: Lorenzo De’ Medici dies 1495: Battle of Fornovo
Machiavelli and Florentine politics 1492-1531: Florence Machiavelli and Florence 1498: Machiavelli elected second chancellor 1498-1512: Machiavelli as a diplomat and as a chancellor to the Nine of the Militia 1512: The Medici come back: no more Machiavelli! 1513: Machiavelli is arrested and then exiled 1527: The Medici are kicked out of Florence, the republic is restored but Machiavelli is ignored and dies that year • 1492: Lorenzo de’ Medici dies • 1494: The Medici kicked out of Florence: the Republic is established • 1512: The Medici come back: no more Republic • 1527: The Medici get kicked out again: the Republic is back • 1531: The Medici come back
Machiavelli the Humanist: the letter to Vettori (10 Dec. 1513) • ‘…I am staying in my country house..I rise in the morning with the sun..when I have eaten, I return to the inn, here is the host, and ordinarily a butcher, a miller and two brickmakers. With these men I loaf about the whole day..playing backgammon…when evening comes, I return home, and I enter into my study, and at the door I take off my everyday dress, full of mud and of dirt, and I put on royal and courtly clothes; and decently dressed I enter into the ancient courts of ancient men, where, received lovingly by them, I eat the only food which is mine, and for which I was born…’
Machiavelli the political theorist: a mystery still to unfold • 1513: The Prince, dedicated to Lorenzo de’ Medici the Younger, ruler of Florence (remember that he was then exiled for his work for the Republic) • 1515-?: Discourses on Livy, a reflection on the Roman republic, to which Machiavelli gave his preference as the best form of government • So is Machiavelli a republican, or a Prince-lover?
But what is really The Prince? • It is NOT a praise of monarchies • It is NOT a study of ‘the end justifies the means’, or rather, what is the ‘end’? And what are the ‘means’? • It is NOT an invitation to violence • What is it then?
The Prince: a ‘scientific’ study of power techniques • Chapter 15: ‘…It remains therefore to see what should be the ways and conduct of a prince…and because I know that many people have written about this…I shall depart from the orders of the others. But since my intent is to write a thing that is useful for whoever understands it, it seemed to me more appropriate to go after the effectual truth of the thing than the imagination of it. And many have imagined republics and principalities that have never been seen or known to exist in truth….’
The Prince: the autonomy of politics • Chapter 17: ‘…a debate arises whether it is better to be loved than feared or the contrary. The answer is that one would want to be both the one and the other, but because it is difficult to join them together, it is much safer to be feared…for [men] are all ungrateful, changeable, pretenders and dissemblers…the prince must make himself feared in such a mode that although he does not acquire love, he escapes hatred’
The Prince: ‘volpe’ and ‘lione’ • Chapter 18: ‘..since it is necessary for a prince to know well how to use the beast, from among the beasts he should choose the fox and the lion, for the lion does not defend himself from traps, and the fox does not defend himself from wolves’
The Prince: ‘virtu’ and ‘fortuna’ • Chapter 25: ‘It is not unknown to me that many persons have held and hold the opinion that the things of the world are governed by fortune and by God, that men, with their prudence, cannot correct them…nonetheless, I judge that it may be true that fortune is the arbiter of half of our actions, but that she indeed allows us to govern the other half of them, or almost that much’
