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Terror and Prudence in the Machiavellian Prince
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Terror and Prudence in the Machiavellian Prince
The use of terror is not anything new in politics, history is littered with examples of terror and brutality. In Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, for example, there is a vivid account in the Melian dialogue of the use of terror. The Melians, who remained neutral in the war, were threatened by the Athenians to abandon neutrality. When refused to submit to Athens’s domination, they were brutally attacked, their city sacked, all adult men killed, and women and children sold into slavery.
However, even though the use of terror is common in practice, it rarely gets articulated at the theoretical level and integrated as a part of study of politics. As is generally the case than not, the use of terror in practice is often cloaked under some more righteous pretexts. For example, in contrast to the harsh Melian dialogue, we have the lofty speech of the funeral oration by Pericles, which depicts an Athens which is almost unrecognizable from the Melian dialogue. It is an Athens that is noble and free, fighting for her way of life against the oligarchs of Sparta and its allies. The use of terror advocated by Machiavelli, however, assumes quite a character. Before we start our discussions on Machiavelli, however, it is helpful to review some political theories of antiquity, in this case, Aristotle, to provide a larger background in which Machiavelli can be better discussed and understood.
Part I, the City
The part of Aristotle’s thought on politics that is most relevant to our discussions is his views on the nature of man and his relations to the city. As we all know, Aristotle’s Ethics can be considered as a preface to his Politics. Various virtues are discussed in the Ethics so that a proper ground is laid prior to the discussions of political actions in the Politics. In I. 2 of his Politics, Aristotle makes the claim that is known to every student of political science, “It is evident, then, that the city belongs to among the things that exist by nature, and that man is by nature a political animal.”
1
Later in the same
paragraph, he further elaborates that man is more of a political animal than bees because we alone have speech, and thus we have a perception of pleasure and pain, and good and bad, and just and unjust. The issue of being just and unjust, however, cannot be separate from the city, the city therefore is “both by nature and prior to each individual.” Without the city, human beings cannot truly be what they are because “just as man is the best of animals when completed, when separated from law and adjudication he is the worst of all.”
2
Therefore, the city, although last in the temporal order after household and village,
is the first in the logical order, because it is the end toward which all human beings strive.
3
1
Aristotle, Politics, 1253a 3
2
Ibid.
3
ibid, 1253a 20.
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Terror and Prudence in the Machiavellian Prince
The use of terror is not anything new in politics, history is littered with examples of terror
and brutality. In Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, for example, there is a
vivid account in the Melian dialogue of the use of terror. The Melians, who remained
neutral in the war, were threatened by the Athenians to abandon neutrality. When refused
to submit to Athens’s domination, they were brutally attacked, their city sacked, all adult
men killed, and women and children sold into slavery.
However, even though the use of terror is common in practice, it rarely gets articulated at
the theoretical level and integrated as a part of study of politics. As is generally the case
than not, the use of terror in practice is often cloaked under some more righteous pretexts.
For example, in contrast to the harsh Melian dialogue, we have the lofty speech of the
funeral oration by Pericles, which depicts an Athens which is almost unrecognizable from
the Melian dialogue. It is an Athens that is noble and free, fighting for her way of life
against the oligarchs of Sparta and its allies. The use of terror advocated by Machiavelli,
however, assumes quite a character. Before we start our discussions on Machiavelli,
however, it is helpful to review some political theories of antiquity, in this case, Aristotle,
to provide a larger background in which Machiavelli can be better discussed and
understood.
Part I, the City
The part of Aristotle’s thought on politics that is most relevant to our discussions is his
views on the nature of man and his relations to the city. As we all know, Aristotle’s
Ethics can be considered as a preface to his Politics. Various virtues are discussed in the
Ethics so that a proper ground is laid prior to the discussions of political actions in the
Politics. In I. 2 of his Politics, Aristotle makes the claim that is known to every student
of political science, “It is evident, then, that the city belongs to among the things that
exist by nature, and that man is by nature a political animal.”
paragraph, he further elaborates that man is more of a political animal than bees because
we alone have speech, and thus we have a perception of pleasure and pain, and good and
bad, and just and unjust. The issue of being just and unjust, however, cannot be separate
from the city, the city therefore is “both by nature and prior to each individual.” Without
the city, human beings cannot truly be what they are because “just as man is the best of
animals when completed, when separated from law and adjudication he is the worst of
all.”
Therefore, the city, although last in the temporal order after household and village,
is the first in the logical order, because it is the end toward which all human beings
strive.
1
Aristotle, Politics, 1253a 3
2
Ibid.
3
ibid, 1253a 20.
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