Machiavelli differed from earlier writers by focusing on the practical aspects of ruling rather than moral or idealistic considerations. He believed rulers should prioritize maintaining power and stability, even if it meant using deceit and cruelty. Machiavelli's pragmatic approach in "The Prince" marks a departure from the traditional emphasis on virtue and ethics in political thought.
Most Renaissance writers that wrote books on the same subject as The Prince wrote that a kind and fair king kept control more easily. Machiavelli wrote that a king should be ruthless.
Petrarch and Machiavelli were both Italian Renaissance writers who deeply influenced literature and political thought. Despite their different areas of focus (Petrarch on poetry and humanism, Machiavelli on political philosophy), they both grappled with the complexities of human nature and ethics in their works.
other writers wrote Latin while Dante wrote Italian and people admired him for that
They were coping with the psychological aftermath of World War I.
They were coping with the psychological aftermath of World War I.
They were coping with the psychological aftermath of World War I.
Niccolo Machiavelli 1469-1527 Machiavelli's life was very interesting. He lived a nondescript childhood in Florence, and his main political experience in his youth was watching Savonarola from afar. Soon after Savonarola was executed, Machiavelli entered the Florentine government as a secretary. His position quickly rose, however, and was soon engaging in diplomatic missions. He met many of the important politicians of the day, such as the Pope and the King of France, but none had more impact on him than a prince of the Papal States, Caesar Borgia. Borgia was a cunning, cruel man, very much like the one portrayed in The Prince. Machiavelli did not truly like Borgia's policies, but he thought that with a ruler like Borgia the Florentines could unite Italy, which was Machiavelli's goal throughout his life. Unfortunately for Machiavelli, he was dismissed from office when the Medici came to rule Florence and the Republic was overthrown. The lack of a job forced him to switch to writing about politics instead of being active. His diplomatic missions were his last official government positions.
Two secular writers of the Renaissance were Niccolò Machiavelli, known for his political treatise "The Prince," and Michel de Montaigne, known for popularizing the essay as a literary genre with his work "Essays."
The modernists created self-contained worlds.
The American writers of the Constitution were able to use the earlier experiences of the American people. This was because by this time, they knew what they needed to include in the Constitution in order to protect the basic rights of Americans. Trial and error had lead the writers to the conclusion that the earlier experiences that had had not had the best of outcomes. Earlier experiences resulted in conflicts such as chaos, massacres, wars, and the overall upheaval of the so called "American" government. Had the writers not heeded their country's past failures, America may still have been, in our age, still facing the same issues and troubles that they had faced in the 1700's during the Revolutionary War.
Dante's masterpiece, "The Divine Comedy," distinguished him from earlier Italian writers by its innovative use of the vernacular Tuscan language instead of Latin, making it more accessible to a wider audience. His unique blend of personal experience, political commentary, and theological elements elevated his work to transcend mere poetry, establishing him as a foundational figure in Italian literature.
He entered the service of the Florentine republic in 1498, four years after the Medici family had been expelled from the city. He was a secretary to the Florentine Council of Ten and made numerous diplomatic missions, including trips to France and Germany. In 1512, French defeat and Spanish victory led to the reestablishment of Medici power in Florence. Staunch republicans, including Machiavelli, were sent into exile. He was forced to give up politics (something he loved) and began to reflect on political power and wrote books, including "The Prince (1513)," one of the most famous treatises on political power in the western world. Machiavelli's ideas on politics stemmed from his preoccupation with Italy's political problems and his knowledge of ancient Rome. His major concerns in "the prince" were the acquisition and expansion of political power as the means to restore and maintain order in his time. From Machiavelli's point of view, a prince's attitude toward power must be based on an understanding of human nature, which he perceived as basically self-centered: "For of men one can, in general say this: They are ungrateful, fickle, deceptive and deceiving, avoiders of danger, eager to gain." Political activity, therefore, could not be restricted by moral considerations. The prince acts on behalf of the state and for the sake of the state must be willing to let his conscience sleep. Machiavelli was among the first to abandon morality as the basis for the analysis of political activity.