The Renaissance: Old in the New

Historically, the Renaissance is thought as a time of creativity and innovation. However, this did not pertain to literary arts and philosophy, but rather other arts and sciences. With the rediscovery of Aristotle and Plato in the 1100's and 1400's, people were able to combine their Christian beliefs with Paganism. Prior to the Renaissance, the views on life were quite bleak and pessimistic, as depicted by a painting of the Virgin Mary. During the Renaissance, this painting was copied and focused more on the detail of color and realism. This is an example of how the artists of the Renaissance, like Machiavelli, took ideas and beliefs of the past and modernized them. If the Renaissance is represented by Machiavelli, it was not entirely original and was based on ideas of the past.

Machiavelli criticized the past and reformed past ideas and actions to what he believed were best. In The Prince, he showed us how we should learn from the mistakes that rulers make. He went further into stating that a ruler should be "loved and feared" (The Prince, Ch. 1, pg. 450), implying that too much hatred could lead to a revolt. Based on history, Machiavelli stated that "men almost always walk along the beaten path, and what they do is almost always an imitation of what others have done before" (The Prince, Ch. 6). Not only did he state this theory, he followed it in his own writings which were modified forms of the works of Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and Epictetus. Machiavelli's belief on the grip of a ruler is based on Epicurus', who felt that securing political power relied on gaining the confidence of the people. Machiavelli built on this by stating that "A ruler, should above all, behave towards his subjects in such a way that, whatever happens, whether for good or ill, he has no need to change his policies" (The Prince, Ch. 9, pg. 437). By changing policies, the public would feel that the ruler is weak, also weakening the public's confidence in him. Machiavelli failed to write about what no other philosopher has said before, but was able to form a new level of thinking with the imitation of others.

Machiavelli did have some original ideas regarding the separation of ethics from politics. In The Prince, Machiavelli wrote about Agathocles and how he became a ruler by killing the Senate leaders and rich citizens. Because he did so with such fierceness, the people feared him enough to not overthrow him. He also wrote how Oliverotto of Ferno acquired power by killing his uncle. By killing his uncle, this also instilled fear into the citizens by showing he has no mercy, even for his family. Machiavelli stated that:

If you take control of a state, you should make a list of all the crimes you have to commit and do them all at once. That way you do not have to commit new atrocities every day. (The Prince, Ch. 8, pg. 437)

With this, Machiavelli thought that the citizens would fear you and respect you all at once. He also believed that there would be more bloodshed if you did not commit all your crimes at once.

Machiavelli's belief on the form of governments was strongly rooted in the belief posed by Aristotle. In The Discourses, Book 1, Chapter 2, Machiavelli built on the six forms given by Aristotle: "Others, who are widely thought to be wiser, say there are six types of constitution, of which three are inherently bad and three are inherently good." He continued using the concept of three good and three bad, but changed the order as well as introduced different governments. Also using Aristotle's writings, Machiavelli believes that in order to have a perfect constitution, a ruler must "[construct] a constitution with elements of each" of the three good forms of government, forming a Republic.

Machiavelli shared Aristotle's belief that history was important because he was a realist. Machiavelli advised to take each situation and decide what to do based on the circumstances, as well as men should change according to their situation. Machiavelli stated that "one learns too from the study of history the losses both peoples and the cities suffered as a result of their enslavement" (Discourses, Bk 2. Ch. 2). This attributed to the thought of Aristotle because Aristotle felt that history was the repetition of experience and that it allowed people to be better politicians if they studied it (Nicomachen Ethics, 1181a 10, pg. 299). In the preface of Discourses, Machiavelli discussed how important it is to read and understand past skills so that citizens can be just and learn.

One could argue that Machiavelli's beliefs can be attributed to the time of the Pre-Socratics as well. Based on the idea by Parmenides that the universe