Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1) Machiavellis stated intention in writing Prince is a gift of knowledge for the Prince whereas his real intention is to gain favor of
2) Machiavelli uses a deferential tone to mask his radical critique of Medicis governance. Also, his book utilizes blunt and precise
language revealing his desire for the simple truth without ornamentation.
3) The letter subverts the value of his radical ideas on people and power by lowering what he believes to be facts learned from
B. Virtue refers to ones own merits that lead to success while Fortune refers to external forces affecting human affairs.
Machiavelli implies that Princes virtue can determine how he reacts to Fortune and whether he can beat it down and take
hold of it. Yet he also states that a prince needs both virtue and fortune.
1) Machiavellis medical analogy on page 12 suggests that enemies need to be removed from source while they are small and
weak and not allowed to grow with time. This prevents larger threats to ones power in the future. This portrays the ruthless
2) Machiavelli is critical of wise men today because he argues that one should take the initiative to attack the enemy.
1) The archer analogy means that one should aim higher than ones goal in order to reach the goal.
2) People are fickle because they care about their own self benefit or as Machiavelli puts it profit.
H) Cumulative listing===
1) Agathocles and Oliverotto of Fermo= Lord Frey from Game of Thrones (Red wedding)
2) Machiavelli doesnt like either of them emphasized by the sharp negative connotations of his diction wicked, betray, cruelty
since their actions are neither attributed to fortune or virtue. However, he agrees that their quick cruel killings at the outset
provides nothing as it is likened by Machiavelli to nothing but an endless struggle of pain and hardship emphasized by the
metaphoric ruined landscape. Glory comes from the struggle to create a great state as with Hiero of Syracuse.------explain
1) Machiavelli suggests that there are two humors in politics nobles who desire to suppress and commoners who dont desire to
be suppressed. According to Machiavelli and the analogy of bodily humors, the two powers need to be balanced.
2) People are more important than nobles because the worst people can do is abandon you while nobles can retaliate. Further,
nobles can easily shift sides when it is in their favor. Princes can make and unmake nobles. Finally, there is many people while
few nobles thus allowing it to be easier to guard against the latter if they are hostile. Therefore, people connections are more
1) The two chief founding stones of a state are good laws and good armies. They are interdependent as good laws need to be
enforced and maintained by powerful forces which are good armies. Similarly, good armies need good laws to control them
2) The catch 22 of mercenary captains is that they plunder your city in peacetime and in war, they break down and disperse.
N) Reliance of mercenaries and foreign armies can poison good states because the strength of the states begins to depend on the
1) Machiavelli describes landscapes as military bases. The point of viewing them is to encompass the wide range of environments
2) A prince must read history to imitate great men in their successful conduct while avoiding their misconducts. A prince must
take advantage of peaceful times to learn and prepare to resist Fortune thus leaving him no time to be idle.
1) Machiavelli argues that being too virtuous is not realistic and brings ruin to those practitioners.
2) Public opinion does not matter because this is the effectual truth rather than the imagined. While public opinion can be
swayed by the wonders of imagined worlds, the books intent is to inform and be useful to those who understand it
therefore it is stating the facts without consideration for fabricated conjectures of the public.
S
1) Important chapter: Men are so simple-minded and so controlled by their immediate needs that he who deceives will always
find someone who will let himself be deceived. Brutus, Antiochus and Antony.
For ordinary people are always taken in by appearances and by the outcome of an event.
2) Men are civilized creatures therefore law is a proper mode of conduct whereas beasts are by their nature wild and unyielding
therefore force is a proper mode of conduct for them. Both natures are essential since one without the other is not lasting.
As a given example, a fox is needed to recognize traps while lion to terrify enemies, it shows the application of man as fox and
beast as lion nature to effectively complement each other. It emphasizes that one nature cannot do the work of the other ie.
Kind ruler trying to terrorize or other way around. Lion typifies the embodiment of force as it is large, strong and on top of the
food chain while foxes are weak but clever in their employment of tricks therefore they embody law.
3) People are not always taken in by winners as the means are important to judge the character. Indeed, Machiavellis advice is
more nuanced than just the end justifies the means as with the example of Oliverotto of Fermo and Agathocles the Sicilian
though they acquired power in the end, Machiavelli doesnt view them favorably because they didnt get glory.
T. 1) It doesnt contradict the previous chapter because both chapters state that the prince should appear to be the
U) Machiavelli believes that fortresses should be build[t] on people which is in consent with Renaissance Humanist ideas.
However, his book also argues that people are ungrateful, fickle, hypocrites or dissemblers which contradicts the idea of
relying on people. This reveals an endless cycle of beginnings and endings of power as fickle nature of people shifts them
W) First type of intelligence who understands things for itself is the best because it provides the rational and practical truth
Z. 1) We are not victims of fate but rather lack of virtue or preparation. Machiavelli says that Fortune turns towards where she
knows no dike or drains have been constructed to hold her in. It suggests that those who are prepared to receive fate will be
less affected by it than those who are not. (Is Fortune a bad thing to receive here?????)