ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

What You Can Learn From Niccolo Machiavelli

Updated on September 30, 2014

Machiavelli is best known for the Prince, and from that book has sprung this idea that he was an advocate of attaining and maintaining power by any means. To hold that view though is to commit a grave injustice against him. His ideas deserve serious consideration, and here are some concepts that are prevalent in his writing.

Machiavelli’s View on Human Nature

When it comes to human nature, there are two major themes that can be found in Machiavelli’s work.

The first is that human nature is unchangeable. As a student of history, he believed that humanity had not changed in any meaningful way since time immemorial nor would we change in the future.

The next major theme was that humans are more prone to do evil than to do good.It is from that idea that Machiavelli based his argument for good government as a counterweight to humanity’s naturally destructive tendencies. It is also one reason that Machiavelli has gotten a bad reputation as a advocate for unethical behavior since he believed that in a world of sharks, you sometimes had to be just as vicious.

Source

Reality Vs Ideal

Another prominent idea is that the reality of a situation should supersede the ideal.He saw danger in focusing on what should be at the expense of what is.

It ties in to his view on human nature. In a world where all men are inherently good as they should be, it would be wrong to do evil for any purpose. On the other hand, in the midst of a pack of wolves, sheep don’t tend to fare so well.

The End Justifies the Means

In the Prince, there is one passage where Machiavelli states that in the absence of an impartial judge, the final result must be considered. It is easy to make the leap from that to the end justifies the means, but there is more to it than that.

In fact, he is just making the point that consequences should be given the most weight when judging the merit of an action, and that sword cuts both ways. One can set out to save the world and yet cause great destruction and human misery or set out to achieve a selfish goal and end up bettering the lives of millions. Intentions should not matter more than consequences.

The Foundation and Maintenance of Vibrant Organizations

Machiavelli wrote two books on governance. We all know him for the Prince, but the Discourses on Livy went into greater depth on his beliefs. Ultimately though, both books can be considered two sides of the same coin.

They each focused on different types of government, but there were common themes interwoven into both. We’ve already gone over some of them, but the most important one is the idea that creating and maintaining organizations is one of the greatest goods that a man can do.

It was through organizations that Machiavelli felt that the potential of humanity could be best harnessed in order to achieve good, and it is through his books that he tried to use history as a model for others to create and maintain vibrant organizations in the future.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)