What are the moral and ethical s issues relating to The Prince Machiavelli?

Answer 1

To answer your question I must first define what I mean by the terms ethics and morals.

Ethics is the study of human obligation, duty, and responsibility. This study is influenced by what a given society says is right and wrong. For example, in the United States bribing an elected official is wrong, therefore the general US society would say that bribery is unethical. In other countries or societies, this is not the case.

Morality is the study of one's assumptions of good and evil. So once again using the example of bribery, an individual or group of individuals (aka a sub-culture) may see the act as unethical and anyone that take or makes a bribe as evil and therefore immoral. Once again, a different individual or sub-culture may see the act of bribery completely differently.

Perhaps a simpler way of looking at these terms is that ethics is what we ought to do, morality is what we choose to do.

Now as for the ethical and moral themes in The Prince the question that must be asked is under what context are you looking for answers? Are you concerned about the ethics prevalent at the time of writing or are you concerned with contemporary ethics?

If you are looking at the ethics when The Prince was written, then it is important to understand that one's social class dictated what was ethical. What was permissible for nobility was not generally allowed for the lower class or the common person. C.S. Lewis in The Magicians Nephew sums up this idea best when one of the characters says that great leaders are not bound by the rules of common men. Great leaders are only bound by power and the authority to use it.

With this in mind, The Prince was written as a "how to" manual for the Italian nobility to grain or maintain power. Essentially, Machiavelli's political theory was that the end's justifies the means when it comes to political power. Now, one needs to be careful in jumping to the conclusion that Machiavelli was utilitarian in his thinking. While his philosophy has utilitarian elements such as calculating the most good of the group, the common person was not part of the group. The group was the nobility and the common person was nothing more than a tool to be used to gain or maintain power. When John Steward Mill developed the utilitarian philosophy 300 plus years after Machiavelli, his concern was the good common person. Therefore, while there are utilitarian undertones in The Prince, Machiavelli's ideology is more of a combination of Virtue Ethics and Hedonism.

Another important consideration when it comes to the ethics of the time is the idea of "Devine Right." This ideology states that a given individual, in this case a prince, by the nature of his noble birth has the right to rule over others. Christian theology based upon the writing of Saint Paul holds that God appoints leaders over men. During Machiavelli's time, this was interpreted to mean that the nobility were appointed by God to rule and therefore their authority came from God. They argued that since God appointed them, whatever they did was the will of God. The overall culture of the time gave the common person no choice but to accept such logic.

So with the above background in mind let us look at the ethical themes in The Prince. Machiavelli offer the following key advice to Italian princes when it comes to power and the authority to use it:

- The wise prince understands that the nature of people is essentially lazy, self-serving, and ungrateful. Given the chance, many individuals will seek their own betterment over the good of the state.

- The appearance of virtue, morality, and righteousness is important in the public eye, but the wise prince is a close friend to hypocrisy as it is necessary to maintain power and fend off plots and usurpers.

- While establishing and maintaining power, the wise prince will seek loyalty from strong factions within his domain and alliances from others outside his domain.

- The wise prince cannot neglect the realities of the real world for the ideas of the world should be. The real world seeks to take power away from the prince whenever the opportunity presents itself.

- The wise prince inspires both fear and love, but not resentment in his people. There are consequences for obeying or disobey the prince. Violence, brutality, betrayal, and treachery are only to be used when swift action needs to be taken to maintain good order and discipline.

- The wise prince will develop a strong state that protects its citizens and their liberties, while at the same time seeking to balances taxes and public welfare.

- When appointing ministers and other officials to advise him, the wise prince will avoid appoint those that have too much ambition and maintain his right to reject the advice of those he appointed to advise him.

From these teams we can draw out the following ethical principles from Machiavelli's time:

1. Respect - for those in authority based upon both fear and love.

2. Loyalty - to those that serve the interests of the state (i.e. the prince.)

3. Beneficence - towards the common people which help the prince stay in power.

While there are other ethical principles, these would have been the most common in Machiavelli's time.

Now looking at ethical themes from a modern perspective, we will need to cast the prince as either a political leader or a business leader. Since there are already a number of good texts that look at Machiavelli and business ethics, I will limit my comments to political leaders.

From a North American/European point of view, I would suggest that many of the themes we have already looked at in our discussion of the ethics in the time of Machiavelli still apply today. For example:

- Many would argue that people are still essentially lazy, self-serving, and ungrateful. While some are idealistic enough to put the needs of the state over the needs of the individual, they are the exception and not the rule.

- The appearance of virtue in the public eye is very important, but a large percentage of the common people could care less what the political leader does in private. Some sectors of society even expect political leaders to lack morality or righteousness.

- Loyalty from special interest groups is essential to secure political influence to gain or maintain power.

- Failure to focus on the current problems of the state can cost a political leader power during the election cycle.

- Political leaders still view it as their responsibility to maintain a safe state that protects the liberties of it citizen. Unfortunately, protecting the liberties of a particular segment of the society often comes that the expense of the liberties of different segment of society. Often political leader use this process of maintaining their power base.

Based upon these contemporary realities, we can find the following ethical principles in The Prince:

1. Reciprocity - Sometimes know as quid pro quo or "this for that" is commonplace in all societies. The skillful use of reciprocity can allow all interested parties to receive/achieve at least some of their political goals/needs.

2. Beneficence - Working for the benefit of others. This is a two-edged sword for the political leader and requires balance between the interest of the state and the needs of the different groups within the pool of citizens. If the political leader favors one at the expense of the other, the leader risks losing power.

3. Justice - The act of giving to the individual of what he or she is due. While there are a number of material principles that may direct the view of what an individual is due, when enough individuals feel that they have not received what they "deserve" the political leader can lose their power base.

4. Autonomy - Within the social construct of the state, political leaders and citizens are free to do as they chose. Naturally, the use of individual or corporate autonomy has consequences. The political leader that forgets this while seeking or maintain power puts his or her career at risk.

I hope this answer helps you. I am sure it is more than you are looking for, however, I think it points out the complexities found in The Prince. If my answer has peaked your interests I would also recommend that you read Machiavelli's Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius. This text was written before The Prince and provides an expanded view of Machiavelli's political theoroes.