The Prince Flashcards
(34 cards)
What Machiavelli values most
- public and private morality had to be understood as two different things in order to rule well
- Better to be widely feared than to be greatly loved
how he acquired his knowledge
- A lot of experience in contemporary affairs
- a continual study of history
factors to consider in new acquisitions (4)
Crime
Alliance with the people
Military force
God
Rules to ensure retention of conquests made in a different province (5)
- Eliminate anyone who was in the previous/ancient bloodline
- Do not alter any of their laws or taxes
- Live there yourself
- Establish colonies
- Defend weak neighboring states by preventing powerful foreigners from invading
two kinds of principality
new and hereditary
Maxim regarding conquest of people used to living free
When you conquer a new area allow those people to keep their own practices and religions.
Models for altogether new principalities (4)
- Ruin them
- Live there yourself
- Let them live by their laws, but establish an oligarchy with allies
- Mean of its own citizens
What fortune provided each of these princes
New princes who relied upon their own arms had nothing from fortune “but the opportunity”
Critique of Agathocles
Wicked, but through great energy became military commander in Syracuse
To become ruler, he massacred the Senate and leading citizens
His skills made him a prince, but his behavior was not virtuous
how civic principalities are acquired
by the people or by the great
two humors found in every city
- Rising from the people’s desire not to be ordered and commanded by the nobles
- Rising from the desire of the nobles to command and oppress the people
Great powers in the province of Italy in 16th century
Florence, Milan, Naples, Venice, Papal States (aka Rome)
relation of arms and laws
There cannot be good laws where there are not good arms, and where there are good arms there must be good law
kinds of arms (3)
- A prince’s own troop
- Mercenaries
- Auxiliaries
Dilemma associated with mercenary arms
Disunited, undisciplined, ambitious, faithless
Their only motivation is monetary
Not effective in battle
Low morale
Kinds of arms of one’s own (3)
Citizens (in Kingship)
Subjects (in a republic)
Creatures (in a tyranny)
Things for which princes are praised and blamed (11 pairs)
Someone considered the giver, someone rapacious Someone cruel, someone merciful Breaker of faith, the other faithful The one effeminate and pusillanimous, the other fierce and spirited The one humane, the other proud The lascivious, the other chaste The one honest, the other astute The one hard, the other agreeable The one grave, the other light The one religious, the other unbelieving
Rule for princes as regards good and bad
It would be great to have a prince that has all of the good virtues above (the praised and blamed pairs), but that is impossible, so he should avoid the bad ones
Why princes should be mean rather than liberal
A prince should not concern himself with living virtuously, but rather with acting so as to achieve the most practical benefit
Beasts prince should imitate (2)
laws
force
Things a prince must avoid at all costs (2)
- Being hated and despised
2. Behaving effeminately
Two of the ten Roman Emperors who had a good end and why in each case
Marcus: had hereditary right to throne, kept order and was never hated, so princes who have a right to a state should look up to him
Severus: moved his army against rome and was elected emperor, wanted to rule in asia and in the west, so he attacked one person and deceived the other and it worked, so new princes should look to him
For what kinds of princes fortresses are good
Princes who are afraid of their people
Kinds of brains (3)
- One that understands things without help (excellent)
- One that understands things when shown by others (also excellent)
- One that doesn’t understand things on its own or with help from others (useless)
