| Please ask through email before using any parts of my essay in an essay of your own. Please reference my website in your Works cited. Thank you. (Lets not be Machiavellian) |
| Existentialism and The Prince Niccol� Machiavelli served in Florence�s republican government for 14 years. In 1512, the Medici family took over Florence and forced Machiavelli into early retirement. He found himself discontent with life away from politics, and in an attempt to get back in Guiliano de� Medici�s good books, he wrote The Prince as a gift to him. Three centuries later, S�ren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche would become the first Existentialists. Existentialism is a diverse philosophy examining freedom, being and relationships. By analyzing Machiavelli�s book, The Prince, and his intent in writing the book, we can determine whether or not he viewed others with an I-It or I-Thou relationship. It will be shown that Machiavelli adhered to at least three basic tenets of existentialism. The degree to which he adhered to these tenets will be revealed by comparing his thoughts to the works of the famous existentialists. Martin Buber defined an I-It relationship as one in which we see others as objects in our world and an I-Thou relationship as one in which we see others as other Is (Olen 251). In advocating cruelty when necessary, reneging on your own promises, and claiming that it is better to be feared than loved, Machiavelli hints that a prince should have an I-It relationship with his citizens. In order to maintain order, the citizens cannot be seen as Thous, but objects to whom violence is dealt in quick spurts and benefits are rationed out slowly (Machiavelli, 1999, 31). However, in order to avoid hatred and win honor, �he should appear a man of compassion, a man of good faith, a man of integrity, a kind and religious man.� (Machiavelli 57). Machiavelli always suggests that the prince should at least appear to have an I-Thou relationship with them. A one-way I-Thou relationship exists between Machiavelli and the conquerors of the previous century, whom he admires and thinks of as other Is. Both I-Thou and I-It relationships exist between Machiavelli and Guiliano de� Medici. The I-Thou relationship is more apparent as the book is written to Medici as a gift, and that presupposes a relationship in which Machiavelli sees him as a Thou. However, to Machiavelli, Medici is an It to be used to return to politics and an It to be used to unite Italy. Sartre said that existence precedes essence, that man is not part of a system but an individual capable of free choice (Eiermann). In other words, because man has no intended purpose, he must make his own. Machiavelli decides that his purpose, or ends, is to return to a position of power and to help reunify Italy. With these goals, he advocates using any means necessary to achieve them, hence �the ends justify the means� (Machiavelli, 2000). By giving meaning to his own life, Machiavelli is tapping into one of the major themes of Existentialism. This theme of free choice is supported in the introduction to The Prince, which states �Florentine patricians knew that political actions depended for their success not on divine aid but on the extent of one�s skill and the resources with which one computed the possibilities� (Grafton xxiii). Machiavelli believed �that it is probably true that fortune is the arbiter of half the things we do, leaving the other half or so to be controlled by ourselves�(Machiavelli, 1999, 79). This statement is very similar to Sartre�s belief that man is free to control his destiny. Machiavelli asserted �I also believe that the one who adapts his policy to the time prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not�(80). Sartre claimed that the only impediment to free choice is �situation�. According to him, we are all free except only within our given situation. �My place, my body, my past, my position, and my relation to other human beings� (Sartre) are examples of how this situation can manifest itself. There is a parallel between Machiavelli�s belief that a prince must adapt to the times and Sartre�s belief that man must adapt to his situation. Machiavelli found that man is free within his situation as Sartre did, and that given life�s situation, man must find his own purpose and pursue it. He sees anyone of citizen status as an It and anyone he admires, such as the conquerors of the previous century, as a Thou. By claiming the �ends justify the means�, he advocates pursuing a goal and reaching for it without regard to method. Generally, existentialists have argued that no objective, rational basis can be found for moral decisions; so it is safe to say that the majority of existentialists have no qualms about the means being �right� or �wrong�. Nietzsche and the other nihilists would certainly agree with Machiavelli, while a religious existentialist such as Buber might not: it would depend on their opinion of moral relativity. Machiavelli was definitely more of an existentialist than the average God- fearing man of his time, but no more than any person in modern times who takes life into their own hands and pursues a goal. Works Cited Christian, James. Philosophy: An Introduction to the Art of Wondering. USA: Rinehart Press, 1973 Eiermann, Katherina. The Realm of Existentialism. Retrieved 18 Dec. 2000 <http://members.aol.com/KatharenaE/private/Philo/philo.html> Grafton, Anthony. Introduction. The Prince. 1999 Machiavelli, Niccol�. The Prince. Trans. George Bull. England: Penguin, 1999. Machiavelli, Niccol�. The Prince. Trans. Luigi Ricci. Revised H.R.P. Vincent. Retrieved 20 Dec. 2000 <http://members.nbci.com/Fox328/prince.htm> Olen, Jeffrey. Persons and their World. USA: McGraw-Hill Inc, 1983 Sartre, Jean-Paul. L'�tre et le n�ant. Essai d'ontologie ph�nom�nologique. Trans. Niko Lipsanen. Updated 22 Nov. 2000 Retrieved 18 Dec. 2000 <http://touko.helsinki.fi/~nlipsane/gradu05b.htm> |
| � 2000 Daniel Brownell |