Niccolò Machiavelli is the author of The Prince, the most important political treatise of the

Renaissance. But what is Machiavelli's point of view on politics?

According to Machiavelli, a prince must act to ensure the stability and security of the state.
Politics must disregard implications (religious and political) extraneous to politics: it must
abide by the "actual truth" of the thing.

A prince, says Machiavelli, must be able to use plans to achieve his goals.

The Qualities of a Prince:

Determination
Intelligence, poor evaluation skills, readiness to intervene
Rationality, i.e. efficiency
Vitality, i.e. energy in action
For Machiavelli, politics is not entrusted to institutions, but to the individual abilities of those
in power.

The writer also speaks of the concept of virtue: by this, he means the immediate
understanding of reality and its translation into action. But virtue is also cunning, lack of
scruples, and ability to predict. Virtue is anything that can help achieve goals and is opposed
to sloth, incapacity, and ineptitude.

Luck has a role: it is made up of those factors, favorable or not, which do not depend on
human nature that influences history. Opportunity is an opportunity to be seized.

Machiavelli also speaks of the characteristics of the humanistic dimension, which are:

Drawing on the books of the ancients

Use of examples
Imitation principle
General law beliefs
The reading of the classics has no purpose such as benefit and delight
lay dimension
The heroic conception of virtue and vision of fortune
Almost scientific formulation of the discourse (effective truth); it takes place through the
analysis of many particular cases; one sticks to reality to derive general norms from it
General situation of the sixteenth century