Philosophy

Niccolò Machiavelli

1469–1527 · Florentine (Italian)

Renaissance humanism; political realism

Florentine diplomat, civil servant and writer who served the Republic of Florence until the return of the Medici in 1512 ended his career. In The Prince and the Discourses on Livy he analysed power as it is actually won and kept rather than as moralists say it should be, making him a founder of modern political thought and lending his name to the adjective "Machiavellian".

How to spot them

▸Virtù and fortuna; the prince who must learn "how not to be good"
▸Cesare Borgia as a model ruler; the fox and the lion
▸Florentine Second Chancellery; exile at Sant'Andrea in Percussina
▸"Better to be feared than loved"

Key works

The Prince (Il Principe) (1513 (published 1532))

Handbook for a new ruler on acquiring and holding a principality; dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici

Discourses on Livy (Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio) (c. 1517 (published 1531))

Defence of republican government drawn from Livy's history of early Rome

The Art of War (Dell'arte della guerra) (1521)

Dialogue on military organisation arguing for citizen militias over mercenaries; published in his lifetime

Florentine Histories (Istorie fiorentine) (1525 (published 1532))

History of Florence commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clement VII)

The Mandrake (La Mandragola) (c. 1518)

Bawdy satirical comedy of Florentine society, still performed

Key ideas

Political realism: a ruler should deal with how people actually behave, not with imagined ideal states, and must be prepared to act immorally when necessity demands
Virtù (energy, skill, decisiveness) lets a ruler master fortuna (chance), which he likens to a flooding river that can be contained by dykes and embankments
A prince should imitate both the fox (to recognise snares) and the lion (to frighten wolves)
If a ruler cannot be both loved and feared, it is safer to be feared, though he must avoid being hated
Mercenary and auxiliary troops are useless and dangerous; a state needs its own armed citizens
In the Discourses he praises mixed republican government, in which conflict between nobles and people can preserve liberty

Quick-fire facts

•He served as Secretary to the Second Chancellery of the Florentine Republic from 1498 to 1512
•After the Medici returned in 1512 he was dismissed, and in 1513 imprisoned and tortured (the strappado) on suspicion of conspiracy
•The Prince was dedicated to Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, Duke of Urbino
•He met Cesare Borgia on diplomatic missions; Borgia features in The Prince as an exemplary new prince
•"The ends justify the means" is a popular paraphrase; the phrase itself does not appear in The Prince
•He organised a Florentine citizen militia from 1506
•He is buried in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence
•His works were placed on the Catholic Church's Index of Prohibited Books in 1559

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Sources

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Niccolò Machiavelli
Bertrand Russell — A History of Western Philosophy