Machiavelli’s the Prince

In Machiavelli's 'The Prince', Machiavelli points out many aspects on human nature. His view is that humans are evil and conniving. He is at an extreme, but not so far off. He believes that a leader must be evil and scheme in order to keep power. He also explains that in order to keep power, in any state of affairs, it is necessary that a leader can be immoral in order to preserve his status. A leader's immorality can extend to taking over a country to prove power to his own people, killing off families of leaders, or even breaking promises in order to gain what he needs to stay in power.

In Chapter 4, Machiavelli starts off with some ways a person can become a ruler. Machiavelli believes power is hereditary, because one who has never experienced it may be reckless with it. However, in cases of rebellion, Machiavelli is in favor of killing off the family of the ruler and suppressing the opposing party, which would be those in favor of the former leader:

And when fighting afterwards amongst themselves, each one was able to attach to himself his own parts of the country, according to the authority he had assumed there; and the family of the former lord being exterminated, none other than the Romans were acknowledged.

Machiavelli respects customs and religions of other 'kingdoms' but in his own way, his immorality for killing off families and suppressing opposing parties make for an immoral situation. In Chapter 5, Machiavelli proposes ways to keep control of countries which have had their own government, perhaps just overthrown. His idea is to destroy and occupy it, then keep a merciful rule while charging high tax and establishing an oligarchy.

In Chapter 18, Machiavelli points out that a good ruler should be able to keep his word and honor it, but be ready to break a promise if it will help and suit him. Princes are allowed to go back on their word for these goals. This seems hypocritical, and immoral, because it goes against the idea of being honest and not selfish. He points out that to be a good ruler, a Prince should be able to enforce laws, even if by force. A Ruler should be able to convince his people to obey him out of love, not out of fear. Even though force is for animals, Princes must be able to carry it out it, perhaps implying that even humans have animal instincts of power and selfishness/self-preservation.

Achilles and many other princes of old were given to the Centaur Chiron to nurse, who brought them up in his discipline; which means solely that, as they had for a teacher one who was half beast and half man, so it is necessary for a prince to know how to make use of both natures, and that one without the other is not durable. A prince, therefore, being compelled knowingly to adopt the beast, ought to choose the fox and the lion; because the lion cannot defend himself against snares and the fox cannot defend himself against wolves. Therefore, it is necessary to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves. Those who rely simply on the lion do not understand what they are about.

A Ruler must be able to carry out both positions of power and cunning (lion and fox) in order to rule successfully.

In Chapter 21, Machiavelli uses King Ferdinand of Spain, and his military campaigns in Granada, Africa, Italy, and France to prove to his people how strong and powerful he was. These campaigns focused his people's attention and prevented attacks against Ferdinand. Again, this seems highly immoral to attack kingdoms just to prove power, and not because they are a threat or because they have committed an offense. While King Ferdinand may have had other reasons to invade other kingdoms, Machiavelli portrays him in a way where he seems ruthless and wants to not only isolate his kingdom but to flaunt his power, like many rulers of the time. Machiavelli points out how far people are willing to go to demonstrate how much they have power. In a perfect and moral society, it is thought that Modesty and Humility are the best qualities, and to flaunt off an iron fist is on the opposite end of this spectrum.

In 'The Prince', Machiavelli makes many assumptions about Human nature which reflect perhaps very well on most humans. Humans