Machiavelli - Caressed or Crushed
A critical assessment of Machiavelli 's claim that 'people should be either caressed or crushed '. by Glen Thomson (11161340) for the course: Political Theory (200.215)
Niccoló Machiavelli lived in violent times. He was an acute observer of the political realm and he read and studied the works of the great philosophers. Using these experiences he wrote a book called 'The Prince ', in part to exhibit his ingenuity and knowledge, in part to try and secure employment of a political nature. In The Prince he makes the claim that 'people should be either caressed or crushed '(1). My personal view of this claim is one of admiration for its effectiveness but concern for its moral standpoint. I will attempt to share why am I so impressed with his insight and why I think he was content to disregard conventional morals when making this claim; I do believe he has some justification for his choices. Machiavelli was a realist and sought to illustrate what was done at the time rather than what might be preferable in the long term. He also lived during a period of political turmoil where brutality was commonplace, leading him to have a starker view of what was perhaps permissible. And finally, while he would have been delighted to know we were studying his work five hundred years on, his claim was intended for a future employer and therefore needed to offer as great a chance of success as possible; its effectiveness was its most important feature. To follow this through I will look at where the claim appears in The Prince, how it can be seen to be effective by example and then I will look at Machiavelli 's life in relation to the violence of the time and review his likely intentions for the claim and the book. Finally I will consider two arguments against my assessment and what I would say in response to these. To begin then, I will start with the claim within the book The Prince. Machiavelli makes his claim in the midst of discussing what he calls mixed monarchies. This is
Niccoló Machiavelli lived in violent times. He was an acute observer of the political realm and he read and studied the works of the great philosophers. Using these experiences he wrote a book called 'The Prince ', in part to exhibit his ingenuity and knowledge, in part to try and secure employment of a political nature. In The Prince he makes the claim that 'people should be either caressed or crushed '(1). My personal view of this claim is one of admiration for its effectiveness but concern for its moral standpoint. I will attempt to share why am I so impressed with his insight and why I think he was content to disregard conventional morals when making this claim; I do believe he has some justification for his choices. Machiavelli was a realist and sought to illustrate what was done at the time rather than what might be preferable in the long term. He also lived during a period of political turmoil where brutality was commonplace, leading him to have a starker view of what was perhaps permissible. And finally, while he would have been delighted to know we were studying his work five hundred years on, his claim was intended for a future employer and therefore needed to offer as great a chance of success as possible; its effectiveness was its most important feature. To follow this through I will look at where the claim appears in The Prince, how it can be seen to be effective by example and then I will look at Machiavelli 's life in relation to the violence of the time and review his likely intentions for the claim and the book. Finally I will consider two arguments against my assessment and what I would say in response to these. To begin then, I will start with the claim within the book The Prince. Machiavelli makes his claim in the midst of discussing what he calls mixed monarchies. This is
Bibliography: 1. Parks, T. (2009). Modern translation of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. London: Penguin Books. 2. Marriott, W.K. (1908). Translation of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. Retrieved on April 15, 2011 from http://www.constitution.org/mac/prince00.htm 3. Wootton, D. (1995). Translation of The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. Indiannapolis, Indiana, USA: Hackett Publishing Company Inc. 4. Edited by: Bondanella, P. and Musa, M. (1988). The Portable Machiavelli. London: Penguin Books. 5. Edited by: Najemy, J.M.(2010). The Cambridge Companion to Machiavelli. Cambidge, England: Cambridge University Press.