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Niccolò Machiavelli, one of the greatest political thinkers the world has produced, was born to an old Tuscan family which before his time achieved some eminence. ... And yet, he educated himself through his father’s library and honed his intelligence by observing the world around him, measuring it against what he had gathered from his reading. ...
Through his experiences in the Florentine polity he produced works such as The Prince, which is a “book of advice to a ruler” , La Madragola (The Mandrake Root), which is “a farce with a cliché plot fit for an opera” , and Discourses, which is considered to have a more politico-philosophical view than The Prince.
Machiavelli’s works have indeed influenced a multitude of political thinkers. ... However, it is important to remember that Machiavelli was attempting to dissect a more complicated political structure than that of Aristotle; his Florence was more like our Philippines, battling with the different demands of “religion, European culture, and nationhood,” undergoing a renaissance. ... According to Hannah Pitkin "his works contain an understanding of politics, autonomy, and the human condition, which is profoundly right in ways that really matter." She goes on to say that "Machiavelli teaches that ideals like virtue and honor, justice and civility – both how we conceive them and how we practice them — are humanly determined. ...
One of Machiavelli’s contributions to politico-philosophical thinking is his three models of manhood which, he asserted, were each uniquely essential for the establishment of a great polity. ... For Machiavelli, “the fox not only sees through the deceptions of others, he is himself a consummate deceiver, and these two abilities together are the measure of his manly achievement.” Machiavelli has more than once assumed for himself the character of the fox. In La Madragola, he is Ligurio who devices a plot to deceive Lucrezia to go bed with Callimaco ; a scheming man who employs a priest’s hypocritical use of religion to convince the lady. ... Machiavelli describes the founder as:
"…an unmoved mover, a source of change not the product of earlier changes, a break in the causal chain of history. ... Nick Joaquin, for one may be considered a founder for he was the first Filipino English fiction writer to write about familiar places and events in Manila in a Manileño’s point of view. ... Of this model Machiavelli says:
“For the Citizen, by contrast, virtù is a sharing in a collective autonomy, a collective freedom and glory, yet without loss of individuality… It lies not in isolation from or domination over others, but in the shared taking charge of one’s objective connections with them.”
The citizen is most concerned with the common good which, according to Viroli, Machiavelli defined as “the good of the citizens who do not want to be oppressed and have no ambition to dominate. ... (In fact a republic without diverse citizens would likely be easy to overcome. ... Though methods may be disagreed upon and conflicts may arise, the value is in the participation in the republic which is necessary for liberty for as long as it is within the boundaries defined by the state.
Machiavelli did not end however with the formulation of the three models of manhood. Though it is important for a republic to have these three models of manhood present in her, Machiavelli also considers the importance of what he conceptualized as Fortune and the eradication of corruzione or corruption. Fortune must smile upon a republic and corruption within it must be eradicated in order for grandezza, “…an expression at once denoting grandeur and magnitude,” to be achieved.
Machiavelli’s concept of Fortune is a far cry from the concept of the ancient Romans of Fortuna, the goddess of fortune, whom they saw as the bringer of tidings, good or bad, a goddess that could be swayed by human efforts of prayer. ... ” Instead, Machiavelli sees Fortune as being like a woman and a river. ... Machiavelli presents her as “a divinity and a queen, presiding over the wheels whose turning determines the destiny of man… a ‘cruel goddess,’ who is ‘demanding and injurious’ towards men. ... However, Machiavelli’s Fortune was not singular. ... The important thought that must be kept in mind here is that though it is important for Machiavelli that fortune be on the side of the republic, he also suggests that it is possible for man to overcome its cruel turns through ingenuity through his choices of actions.
The importance of the eradication of corruption stems from Machiavelli’s understanding of the human condition. ... ” An example of this would be our former First Lady Imelda Marcos who “set a trend for the ‘martial law nouveau riche’ who bought for investment; patronizing and funding the training of Filipino artists abroad, and expecting them to be at her beck and call to perform for her parties and guests; and in general using her patronage of art and culture as glitter and whitewash, for personal gratification and aggrandizement…” For Machiavelli:
“most men ‘simply want not to be ruled’; they want to be able ‘to live as free men’ (vivere liberi), pursuing their own ends as far as possible without insecurity or unnecessary interference. ... However, Machiavelli says that “a city ‘can be called free’ only if its laws and constitutional provisions efficaciously restrain the bad impulses of the nobility and the populace.” Therefore, it must follow that the government and its head together with the people must not allow corruzione or corruption to exist in the republic.
Approximate Word count = 4511
Approximate Pages = 18
(250 words per page double spaced)
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