The Prince Discourse On Livy Analysis

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After spending several days reading Niccolò Machiavelli’s books The Prince, Discourses on Livy, and Mandragola, there have been moments where each story has shown some similarities and differences to each other; the politics of obtaining power, strategic planning to maintain it, and the overall revelation of human nature in general. The virtue (meaning “a quality considered morally good or desirable in a person”) and virtù (meaning “knowledge of or expertise in the fine arts”) of mankind, Fortuna (translated as “fortune” meaning “luck”), as well as the notion of idealism against the notion of realism all play a role in influencing political theory and laying forth the foundations of modern-era philosophy. For good or ill, each political philosophy …show more content…
How prudence relates to other key concepts in this story comes with an apparent discrepancy with The Prince, thus highlighting the difference in both stories: the first is The Prince is concerned with the various forms of government and is only a practical guide for princes on how to rule, the second is Discourses on Livy is written to enthusiastically praise the virtues of a republic (how to initiate a republic and how to preserve them) with Machiavelli taking note that the people are more aware of what is going on around them and are possibly wiser as much as or more than a who prince governs them (Book III, Chapters 8-10, pages 281-285). This contrasts Machiavelli’s earlier remarks when The Prince was published as Discourses provides the notion that unlike a single ruler believing themselves to use the strength of virtú as a necessary means of controlling Fortuna for the pursuit of glory whilst Machiavelli believing a democracy can govern a republic and adhere to values such as virtue and liberty at the same time, even though the similarities outline the necessity for a strong prince in developing a community (Book I, Chapter 34, pages 94-96) to promote the virtue of a republic’s citizens and prevent its corruption. How the prudence of Discourse on Livy would be used in response to the police crisis …show more content…
Through such a degree of deception, in addition to the help from Ligurio and others, arranges the successful marital infidelity. In regards to the virtù of Mandragola, is that Lucrezia’s body is used as a political tool by the desires of men due to her youth and beauty. While the era Lucrezia was living in she ordinarily had little choice in the matter in regards to her liberty even though Nicia holds all the power, she did however have the final say in the end—meaning that if Lucrezia refused to participate in this “infidelity” with Callimaco, Machiavelli promoted Callimaco boasting of his fortuna and virtù by demonstrating his willingness to endanger himself to make himself more worthy of Lucrezia and worthy of being a virtuous authoritative figure than Nicia. This similarity is shared with The Prince where the prince and Callimaco owes themselves to fortuna but ultimately loses themselves because of their respective passiveness; by overstepping too much to further improve themselves, Machiavelli used such a comedy to describe recent political
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Essay about The Early Life of Machiavelli

Florentine government as a secretary. His position quickly rose, however, and was soon engaging in diplomatic missions. He met many of the important politicians of the day, such as the Pope and the King of France, but none had more impact on him than a prince of the Papal States, Cesare Borgia. Unfortunately, for Machiavelli, he was dismissed from office when the Medici came to rule Florence and the Republic was overthrown. The lack of a job forced him to switch to writing about politics instead of being…

Words 1550 - Pages 7