Garrett Bo Garrett Dr.

Watt HIS 355 April 3, 2013

The Methodical Machiavelli

Niccollo Machiavellis text The Prince is an accurate depiction of the importance of humanism that became established during the Renaissance era. It is a guide on how the Prince or the ruler should act in both his roles as a ruler and as an individual person. The authors allusions to both real heroes and those of ancient mythology along with their successes and failures show the desire to understand and learn from the past so that it can be applied in the present world. The Prince is essentially a reflection of Machiavellis favorite theme of politics, the exercise of power. In the text, power evidently appears to be his expression of individuality and potential, the two aspects that form his view of the humanistic trend. Many relationships can be drawn between Machiavelli and many Renaissance writers of the time. One of these writers is Picco della Mirandola. Pico viewed mankind in positive and optimistic light. In his view, mans power is boundless and due to his own freewill, so is his own individuality. In contrast, Machiavelli appears more reserved in his analysis of mankinds individuality and his views are only limited to those individuals who have a sense of prowess, such as the Prince. He however writes, All things have conspired to your greatness. The rest is up to you. God does not want to sow everything Himself, and take away from us our free will and our share of the gory which belongs to us (Machiavelli, 21).

Garrett In comparison to another writer of the period, Pietro Paolo Vergerio, Machiavelli appears more attuned to the humanistic traditions. Machiavellis prowess can be seen in light of the highest gifts of the mind and body. To this extent, Machiavelli compares well to other Renaissance writers of his time. However, this does not indicate that he was optimistic of

human nature. His optimism only lay in the capacity of the individual to escape from that nature. Although, Machiavelli believed that all men had their weaknesses, they still possessed the capacity to overcome those weaknesses and become Princes. The text is a narrative that is a guide to the rulers of the Renaissance period. It draws attention to the expanding humanistic theories advocated by the thinkers of the period, in an attempt to influence changes in a society ruled by inferior authority figures. In addition to this objective, the text exposes its radical approach to humanism, and in the process analyses aspects like fear, cruelty and hatred as critical aspects of leadership in any society. However, the text also reveals contradictions. Apart from the negative attributes, the writer outlines other aspects such as admiration, generosity and love as comprising key aspect of leadership. He states that these factors need to be intertwined with the former aspects if the Prince is to effectively exercise his authority (Machiavelli, 31). This shows that the text is not only concerned about humanistic values, but other contrastive aspects too, which form an important aspect of the book. Machiavelli further demonstrates that people and not external factors are responsible for their actions. not to extinguish our free will, I hold it to be true that fortune is the arbiter of onehalf of our actions, but that she still leaves us to direct the other half, or perhaps a little less (Machiavelli, 105). In his writings, Machiavelli refers to goddess Fortuna, who was believed to bring good luck and wealth. This concept of fortune is present through the book and is shown to be present in all circumstances that are beyond the control of man.

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The Renaissance period in general displayed this aspect of humanism, contradicting the religious dogma of the time which taught that fortune was subject to the will of God. Machiavelli reflects the methods and concerns of the Renaissance through the use of models in his writings. In The Prince, he maintains the traditions that had been popularized by other writers of the time. By using models, he is asking the Prince to learn from the mistakes and faults of other ancient rulers before him. He gives examples of people such as Romulus and Theseus and emperors like Pertinax benign humane men who led unassuming lives, loving justice and hating cruelty (Machiavelli, 9). This tradition of learning from the actions of others was not new in the Renaissance writings; the only difference being that Machiavelli employed some of his moral monsters for affirmative purposes, rather than censorious ones. His characters were worth studying by the Prince, not because they had made mistakes, but because they had displayed strength of character. Hannibal is, for example lauded in the section about compassion and cruelty because he led a huge and decidedly multiracial army far from home without any dissent. On how he achieved this, Machiavelli relates it to his tremendous cruelty (Machiavelli, 84). Such illustrations show the extent to which Machiavelli employed but also subverted the historical tradition of humanism. The references to mythological and historical characters within the Prince are also made when discussing the strategies for running the country. This is an example of the influence that the past era had on the Renaissance period At the time that Machiavelli was writing during the Renaissance period, the intellectual landscape was dominated by individualism and a expanding optimism for the potential of mankind (Hankins 51).The existing landscape was best captured by the humanist movement that characterized the period. While humanistic writings concentrated on mans unending potential, Machiavellis writings talked of mans own self centeredness and his life long desire for

Garrett domination over others. Through these writings he can be described as creating equilibrium between the humanists sense of optimism and his own sense of cynicism regarding mankind. By placing more emphasis on the potential of the Prince, Machiavelli underlines his pessimism of human nature but optimism of individual talent. Overall, however, the contradictions that informed Machiavellis writings in relation to the humanistic perspectives were subtle and not significant enough to view him outside the realm of humanistic trends of the period. He however made the effort of making his writings more attuned to the conditions of the time and the future. The Prince, for example is a text that is timeless whose relevance is as significant in the present world as it was at the time it was written.

Garrett Works Cited Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, trans. George Bull, New York: Penguin, 1999, 54.