An Introduction to Machiavelli’s “The Prince”
fta - “We move to 15th c. Italy. Petty little rulers of various cities are pillaging, raping, murdering their own citizens, and their own citizens are standing idly, literally saying that God will punish eventually. The Pope himself has worldly ambitions; Pope Alexander has an illegitimate son, Cesare Borgia, whom he arms and allows to conquer otherwise peaceable areas. The absence of politics is the absence of security; if there is a natural law, it is completely overshadowed by the fact men are killing each other for the basest of reasons all the time. What Machiavelli rejects are both classical and Christian notions of politics; that part of the revolution in thought which becomes crucial to thinkers such as Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, Descartes, Milton, Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza can be seen easily if one is willing. What is much harder to see is what Machiavelli stands for, in full.”