Morality and Machiavelli Essay

Submitted By zainab99
Words: 1769
Pages: 8
Open Document
Power, Virtù, and Fortune
Machiavelli presents to his readers a vision of political rule purged of extraneous moralizing influences and fully aware of the foundations of politics in the effective exercise of power. The term that best captures Machiavelli's vision of the requirements of power politics is virtù. While the Italian word would normally be translated into English as “virtue,” and would ordinarily convey the conventional connotation of moral goodness, Machiavelli obviously means something very different when he refers to the virtù of the prince. In particular, Machiavelli employs the concept of virtù to refer to the range of personal qualities that the prince will find it necessary to acquire in order to “maintain his state” and to “achieve great things,” the two standard markers of power for him. This makes it brutally clear there can be no equivalence between the conventional virtues and Machiavellian virtù. Machiavelli expects princes of the highest virtù to be capable, as the situation requires, of behaving in a completely evil fashion. For the circumstances of political rule are such that moral viciousness can never be excluded from the realm of possible actions in which the prince may have to engage. Machiavelli's sense of what it is to be a person of virtù can thus be summarized by his recommendation that the prince above all else must acquire a “flexible disposition.” That ruler is best suited for office, on Machiavelli's account, who is capable of varying her/his conduct from good to evil and back again “as fortune and circumstances dictate” (Machiavelli 1965, 66). It is not a coincidence that Machiavelli also uses the term virtù in his book The Art of War in order to describe the strategic prowess of the general who adapts to different battlefield conditions as the situation dictates. Machiavelli sees politics to be a sort of a battlefield on a different scale. Hence, the prince just like the general needs to be in possession of virtù, that is, to know which strategies and techniques are appropriate to what particular circumstances. Thus, virtù winds up being closely connected to Machiavelli's notion of the power. The ruler of virtù is bound to be competent in the application of power; to possess virtù is indeed to have mastered all the rules connected with the effective application of power. Virtù is to power politics what conventional virtue is to those thinkers who suppose that moral goodness is sufficient to be a legitimate ruler: it is the touchstone of political success.
What is the conceptual link between virtù and the effective exercise of power for Machiavelli? The answer lies with another central Machiavellian concept, Fortuna (usually translated as “fortune”). Fortuna is the enemy of political order, the ultimate threat to the safety and security of the state. Machiavelli's use of the concept has been widely debated without a very satisfactory resolution. Suffice it to say that, as with virtù, Fortuna is employed by him in a distinctive way. Where conventional representations treated Fortuna as a mostly benign, if fickle, goddess, who is the source of human goods as well as evils, Machiavelli's fortune is a malevolent and uncompromising fount of human misery, affliction, and disaster. While human Fortuna may be responsible for such success as human beings achieve, no man can act effectively when directly opposed by the goddess (Machiavelli 1965, 407-408).
Machiavelli's most famous discussion of Fortuna occurs in Chapter 25 of The Prince, in which he proposes two analogies for understanding the human situation in the face of events. Initially, he asserts that fortune resembles “one of our destructive rivers which, when it is angry, turns the plains into lakes, throws down the trees and buildings, takes earth from one spot, puts it in another; everyone flees before the flood; everyone yields to its fury and nowhere can repel it.” Yet the furor of a raging river does not mean that its
Show More

Related Documents: Morality and Machiavelli Essay

Machiavelli's The Prince

Generosity and Miserliness, Praise, morality but most of all the reputation a leader should portray; Machiavelli insisted on a rather harsh attitude towards his people for the benefit of control and order. According to Machiavelli, the prince should prepare for war, during all times, by disciplining himself intellectually and physically. A leader should acquaint his body to the hardships of war, by action and mind; for example, the practice of hunting. Machiavelli insists on hunting therefore learning…

Words 919 - Pages 4

Machiavelli's The Prince

anything without the slightest regard for morality with just one goal, to be crowned the winner. This is perhaps best described in “The Prince”, a nonfiction user guide into the field of politics written by Machiavelli in 1532. One could argue that something written 500 years ago, in a time where political correctness was seen as weak could still be valid today. Unfortunately, morality in politics is not regularly exercised both 500 years ago and now. Machiavelli preaches a peaceful yet immoral agenda…

Words 569 - Pages 3

Comparing Morality In Machiavelli's The Prince And Julius Caesar

An intertextual examination of The Prince (1513), a political treatise by Niccolò Machiavelli and Julius Caesar (1599), a historical tragedy by Shakespeare enhances the reader’s understanding of the shared authorial values regarding state stability and morality despite their different contextual values. Machiavelli’s The Prince reflects the Renaissance Humanist ideals diverging from a conventional form by exploring the struggles of maintaining power and moral principles. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar…

Words 1098 - Pages 5

The Message in the "Prince" Essay

but never the less; the message is a complete work of non-fiction. There is one fundumental flaw in the Prince however. It is completely devoid of God and morality. The lack of conscience in the book “the Prince” is a testament to Machiavelli’s shortsightedness Niccolò Machiavelli was born in Florence in 1469. Though Machiavelli was born from a poor family he held a number of legal positions in the Florentine civil service. He wrote The Prince in 1513, and dedicated it to Lorenzo…

Words 1663 - Pages 7

Machiavell's Exceptional Power

of change, Machiavelli describes fortùna according to arbitrary gender roles prescribed to women; as being impetuous as she changes often alters her course. When fortùna varies, and leaders remain obstinate, their demise is inevitable. If the winds of change challenge the French by subjugating its territory to terrorism or insecurity, then, good leaders ought to acquire virtù, which is the set of personal qualities necessary to maintain power and triumph despite fortùna.…

Words 625 - Pages 3

Machiavelli's The Hunger Games: An Analysis

Machiavelli wrote his famous dissertation on power, The Prince, in 1517. In this tome, Machiavelli offers political leaders (royal or otherwise) rules for gaining, using, and keeping power. The Prince has been called “the greatest single study of power on record” (Berle 19). As such, it has served since the sixteenth century by for many as a blueprint for countless coups and acts of political maneuvering. Scholars see it The Prince as a clear, and often brutally honest, explanation of the nature…

Words 424 - Pages 2

Machiavelli: Fidel Castro and Machiavelli Essay

same way that Machiavelli tried to show us his perspective not as what it should be but actually what it was like (Real Politics). There are many points, that I wish not to go through without analyzing them but it is out of my reach for my purpose to go into them. Seen into our present, the world and the political figures that have emerged from it we can do a comp ration or a retrospective from Machiavelli’s view. I going to take one in particularly, to try to analyze what Machiavelli thought was…

Words 635 - Pages 3

Brutus Reputation In Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar

speaking, seeing, and doing things contrary to your purpose, to please the prince. (Machiavelli and Gilbert 1965, v.1, p.424) Brutus seemed…

Words 564 - Pages 3

Machiavelli: Realism over Idealism Essay

Luke Pelagio Due 5/27/2011 Period 4 Machiavelli: Realism Over Idealism Nicolo Machiavelli is known as being an archetypical realist; in other words, he was someone who originated the idea that we should not try to figure out how people should be, but rather accept and deal with the world as it literally is. Unlike Machiavelli, Plato posited an idealist view of a philosopher king reigning through virtue. To Machiavelli, this is an extremely dangerous delusion for it ignores what he considers…

Words 1102 - Pages 5

President Machiavelli Bush Essay

President Machiavelli Bush George W. Bush, our current President, must keep a copy of Machiavelli’s most celebrated work, “The Prince “(1513), on his desk in the Oval Office. In my opinion, Bush and his administration’s actions mimic Machiavelli’s advice to the Prince on the tactics that he should use to stay in power. I am going to discuss how President Bush uses Machiavellian principles. My first example is of Bush’s “War on Terror”. In 2001, the President stated that Saddam…

Words 852 - Pages 4