POL-201
Sandipto Dasgupta
Mid-Term Paper
private virtue requires and what the necessities of politics require? What is about the nature
“If men were entirely good this precept would not hold, but because they are bad, and will
not keep faith with you, you too are not bound to observe it with them.” (Machiavelli 103)
Niccolo Machiavelli’s words hold no contempt for men, only acceptance. Acceptance of the
idea that people are morally deviant, and so, a prince too has every right to be the same. That is the
Unlike Confucius, whose prescribes certain traits for the ideal human being, or Aristotle,
who discusses an ideal state, Machiavelli is not concerned with laying down a philosophy for a
virtuous ruler, but rather, an effective one. In fact, he admits that it is “more appropriate to follow
up the real truth of the matter than the imagination of it”, referring to texts that instruct kings to be
the pinnacle of humanity. He believes these works focus on what must be practiced at the expense
of understanding the real morality of men, claiming that “how one lives is so far distant from how
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He devotes much consideration to human nature. Further, he uses examples of the past to
bolster his arguments, and underlines preemptive thinking as an asset for the prince to ensure the
survival of his state. Over and above this, a prince must have a knowledge of how to rule unjustly.
Morality hence emerges as a strong driver of his ideas. Immorality, even more so. Although it is
Machiavelli who is thought to be amoral, his book, The Prince finds the subjects, nobles and
To answer the question of different moralities, this paper will look at three different actors
within the text: the prince, his people and those who are directly under his employ, such as the
army, nobles and ministers. What Machiavelli expects of each of them reveals his interesting and
complex sense of morality, and one can then decide whether such a morality conflicts with private
virtue.
Machiavelli’s writings on the use of cruelty and force to govern are what contains some of
his more controversial views. “Men ought either to be well treated or crushed” (Machiavelli 25),
meaning that if prince must use cruelty against his subjects, he must do it wholly and unsparingly,
for if they are not beaten to an extreme, they can survive and exact revenge. Although it is true that
this amounts to repression, Machiavelli is also making a larger point about rebellion. Naturally,
And so, the prince must exercise cruelty to secure his state, with sufficient justification each
time, and to the extent that he does not incur the hatred of his people. How does he ensure this?
Simply, he must leave alone the property and women of his subjects. Machiavelli places the
importance of leaving be their property over executing a disloyal subject, as “men more quickly
forget the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony” (99).
He thus charges the common man with a skewed morality. Similarly, when he ponders
whether it is better to be feared or loved, and answers that it is the former, it is not because he
wishes for a prince to terrorise his population. It is to protect against the self-interest of people,
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which they will put before their obligations to the prince. He asserts that they are in general
“ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous”, unreliable and immorally advantageous. A prince
who lovingly trusts in the promises of his people causes his own ruin, for “men have less scruple in
offending one who is beloved than one who is feared.” Machiavelli is confident that a subject of a
prince will betray him, unless he is deterred by fear, for “love is preserved by the link of obligation
which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage”, whereas
if he is held by the “dread of punishment” (99), he will not fail to obey the prince. According to
Machiavelli, subjects of the prince, then, are capable of being most unfaithful and untrustworthy,
However, princely honour and glory are important. This becomes clear when he references
Agathocles the Sicilian, who ascended to the throne through the military. Even though he was able
to gain an empire, to “slay fellow-citizens, to deceive friends, to be without faith, without mercy,
without religion” (56), and to use “barbarous cruelty and inhumanity with infinite wickedness”,
made him deplorable in Machiavelli’s eyes, and thus Agathocles is not considered as a glorious
leader. Clearly, The Prince holds that cruelty can be used wrongly, or improperly. It needs to be
“necessary to one’s security”, and “not persisted in afterwards unless they can be turned to the
advantage of the subjects” (59). The Prince holds that cruel violence against the people needs to be
carried out all at once, so that its occurrence is singular and is erased afterwards from their
memories (whereas the opposite is to be done with benefits, which must be given out to them little
Despite these harsh measures, “every prince ought to desire to be considered clement and
not cruel.” The prince must always seek loyalty from his subjects and assure that they feel a need
for him and the state (Machiavelli 65). To the extent that he is able to inspire loyalty in his people,
he must not fear the use of cruelty to control them. Machiavelli justifies the executions of
wrongdoers in the state, as they will allow greater disorder to pervade society and harm more
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people, whereas mercilessly making an “example” (Machiavelli 97) will set a precedent, and hurt
His philosophy on cruelty is thus more concerned with making sure the state is stable and
the people are peaceful and obedient, rather than to condone any misuse of power of the prince.
Most importantly, in using cruelty with his subjects, a prince must “proceed in a temperate manner
with prudence and humanity” (Machiavelli 98). His writing does not assign an aspiring prince the
responsibility of being ruthless, but rather, knowing how to be necessarily and judiciously ruthless.
The prince must understand how to not be morally right, and use this understanding to sustain his
title.
While he emphasises a strong arm in effective rulership, Machiavelli does not fail to convey
that a prince must show genuine concern for his people as well. He must “honour the proficient in
every art”, “encourage his citizens to practice their callings peaceably”, celebrate with them through
festivals, praise and regard well the different guilds and societies in his state, and “show himself as
Liberality must be carefully practiced; to establish a reputation for generosity among his
subjects, a prince must be generous with his money. To obtain money, he must tax the people. The
case should not arise that his extraction of taxes from the people becomes excessive, for this will
hurt them. It is better to be frugal, and preserve funds to better the state’s health.
Of nobles, Machiavelli believes that they are easily corruptible, and a prince must be wary
of their ambitions. Either they tie their futures with that of the prince, or they remain independent of
his command. Those nobles who choose the former path, are to be held in close regard and treated
with honour, and of those who choose the second, the ones who desire power must be treated like
enemies, for they will place their own desire above the good of the prince. They will pose threats in
times of adversity (Machiavelli 63). They are seen as cunning and self-serving, ready to “obtain
be oppressed by nobles (Machiavelli 61). Machiavelli uses this to explain why a prince must value
the satisfaction of his people higher than that of his nobles, for they have a righteous demand, and
while nobles are dispensable and replaceable to him, the people are not. (Machiavelli 62) He must,
however, cherish the nobles, but only as far as he does not let himself be despised by his people.
In the same way the people’s loyalty to the state is crucial for a prince, his “secretaries” or
servants too must not seek “inwardly his own profit in everything” (Machiavelli 133), for then they
cannot be trusted.
In Chapter 23, Machiavelli discusses the danger of flatterers in his court, for they are
abundant, and can only be guarded against if a prince admits to all that hearing the truth does not
offend him. Additionally, he must ensure that he is accessible only to the wisest men in his state,
and only they can present the truth to him. He must also question their truths and encourage their
honesty towards him. They, like the nobles, will think only for themselves and be inauthentic, as
“men will always prove untrue to you unless they are kept honest by constraint.” (Machiavelli 136)
Thus, a prince must be very careful in choosing who he trusts for political counsel.
And so, Machiavelli depicts a very negative picture of a prince’s nobles and counsellors. It
becomes clear through his descriptions and cautionary advice for the prince that such characters do
not deserve the full faith of a wise prince, owing to their lack of morality, honesty and loyalty.
Self-reliance emerges as a strong theme in The Prince. This can also be gathered from
Machiavelli’s opinions about armies. Together with good laws, good arms make for strong
A prince must concentrate his expertise in the art of war. He must dedicate himself to
studying war especially in times of peace. It is regarded as such a powerful tool that even a common
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Machiavelli trusts most in a self-created army. Using Italy as an example, he shows that in
the case that a ruler trusts mercenaries, he is bound to allow the ruin of the state. Mercenaries are
“disunited, ambitious, and without discipline”, and they are motivated to protect the state only by
the stipend they receive, which “is not sufficient to make them willing to die for you”(Machiavelli
74). It seems from his ideas about a prince’s hard power that his army has to be based on the strong
allegiance of his people, and has to be recruited from them to maintain true honour.
Further, “nothing can be so uncertain or unstable as fame or power not founded on its own
strength” (Machiavelli 86). And, when the prince must resort to arms to protect the state, he must
“perform the duty of a captain” (Machiavelli 75). This chapter marks out an expectation of the
prince: he must be able to inspire glory and valour from within the people of his state. Victory must
be a claim of the prince, not of a body of mercenaries, or of the auxiliary forces of another ruler. Of
the latter, he says that they will always work to the disadvantage of the prince; if they fail, his state
is devastated, but if they succeed, the prince is in their captive debt. A prince must avoid joining
forces with a state more powerful than his, for if it conquers his own, then he is vulnerable to its
Chapter XVIII is about how a prince can retain the faith of the people. Inherent in
Machiavelli’s words here and many other parts of the book is the idea that morality and honesty is
not to be expected from the people. And, while it is commendable for a leader to possess these
virtues, the leaders who take recourse to craft and trickery are more successful. Machiavelli writes
that a prince must more often learn to take the path of ‘beasts’, that is, of using force, rather than of
the civil laws of men. Of the beasts, the prince must learn to act both like the fox and the lion. By
this, he means that he must know how to be strong and intimidating like the lion, as well as cunning
and witty enough to avoid traps like the fox. He cannot simply depend on the way of one.
Particularly, “he who has known best how to employ the fox has succeeded best” (Machiavelli
104).
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This chapter also reveals what it means to be apparently ‘Machiavellian’, and is crucial for
answering the question of different moralities. It is important for Machiavelli’s prince to “appear
merciful, faithful, humane, religious and upright, and to be so, but with a mind so framed that
should you require not to be so, you may be able.” (Machiavelli 104) Appearance of virtue in a
In other words, a prince can be immoral if his politics requires it, as long as he is putting on
a facade of high morals. The controversy in a statement like this stems from the idea that as if a
leader can convince his people that he represents great ideals, he can turn back on his words and act
One may consider this instead: the people themselves favour goodness, but, as Machiavelli
believes that people don’t do what they ought to do, they do not necessarily possess it. Further, they
are simpleminded, and more preoccupied with what things seem to be and not what they actually
are (Machiavelli 106). A prince must account for this tendency, and hence, his politics need to be
deceptive, if they are against the morals of his people. He must be a skilled “pretender and
dissembler”, and he will then find ease in controlling his state, for “he who seeks to deceive will
always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived” (Machiavelli 104). Machiavelli’s
arguments for the use of deception are based on two things: the weakness of people to be easily
deceived, and the historical success of leaders who use craftiness to rule their states.
Earlier in the text, he presents the example of Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander the
Sixth. Borgia acquired the territory of Romagna, and put a ruthless man, Ramiro d’Orco, at its
helm. D’Orco used harsh methods to control the people and establish order in Romagna. After this,
Borgia removed him from power and imposed a court to run the state. He then had D’Orco
executed. Killing two birds with one stone, Borgia’s move transferred the blame of who caused
Romagna’s suffering to only D’Orco, and through the eyes of the people, Borgia was seen righteous
man. Machiavelli stresses that above all, a prince must strive to gain the reputation “of being a great
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and remarkable man” (127). He must, as Cesare Borgia was able to, “leave affairs of reproach to the
management of others, and keep those of grace in their own hands” (Machiavelli 111), so that he
can effectively dominate the people, but also win their affection.
Machiavelli’s principles do not appear entirely amoral, when one takes into account that his
work is tempered with much thought about self-reliance and proactiveness. I believe that the nature
of politics is such that without these considerations, a prince puts his power at risk. Because of his
special focus on them, Machiavelli accords a lower priority to being a perfect leader, or to commit
to the happiness of subjects. As a result, the means a prince must use to hold power would appear as
amoral to those who believe in the best of human nature. But Machiavelli operates with the exact
persuaded. Cruelty and dishonesty towards subjects are thus promptly rationalised. Nonetheless, he
believes that a prince needs them to be friendly to him to ensure that he does not have to worry
Simply put, Machiavelli’s ideas are not in and of themselves coldblooded; his advice seems
to be largely reaction-based. Through his study of historical patterns of administration, and what he
perceives as the true behaviour of humans, he grants the prince the right way to commit a wrong,
Perhaps the question this paper needs to answer can be viewed another way; is Machiavelli
necessarily distinguishing between the necessities of politics and of private virtue through The
I believe that through his analyses, he demonstrates that one is necessary in order to
facilitate the other. The human constructs of morality, justice and good faith have no need in the
heart of a prince. However, they become compelling masks for him to carry out his unethical
politics. Machiavelli thus attempts to teach a ruler how to use morality to disguise immorality,
which I believe makes him a brilliant political strategist. His logic is simple: if duplicity is the
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greatest tool in the hands of a successful prince, the fundamental difference between politics and
private virtue does not matter. What matters is that they will eventually converge to fit the agenda
of a ruler.
The Prince is therefore not simply a manual on how to rule a kingdom well without a
conscience, but rather, a historically-backed guide on governing with caution, complete knowledge,
realistic expectation and a correct attitude towards all over whom one rules. It is highly important to
note that Machiavelli does not ultimately want a prince to reign through deception, cruelty and
repression; he must know how to use means of this sort, should he have to to maintain his power.
Works Cited