Machiavelli must act.
In this new circumstance, what is required is not merely
knowledge but a certain disposition of mind, a willingness to use knowledge, an “armed
That armed prudence will be put into the service of bettering the lot of the
people. A philosophy allied to the people will not be threatened by the people or appear
or be abandoned by them (P 9 & 10). Machiavelli will make these
points in more detail throughout the rest of The Prince, but he lays the groundwork for
their acceptance by the careful reader in Chapters 3-5.
Conclusion
As we have seen, The Prince is a complex and allusive book. Considering the subtlety
with which Machiavelli weaves his argument and the interconnectedness of all passages
no treatment of any part of the book—even a part as cohesive as
Chapters 3-5—could possibly convey that part’s entire meaning. Yet Machiavelli
divided his book into sections for reasons—even if, for other reasons, he declined to
make those divisions explicit. Careful attention to the arguments developed within those
sections can yield a greater understanding of Machiavelli’s overarching argument. The
aim of this essay is to contribute to the study of the whole of Machiavelli’s work by
isolating and examining a part. Because the part chosen appears early in the work, it may
be said to be foundational. Yet precisely because it is early, it is of necessity provisional.
113
Strauss, p. 13: “we are forced to remember the profound theological truth that the devil is a fallen angel.
To recognize the diabolical character of Machiavelli’s thought would mean to recognize in it a perverted
nobility of a very high order.” Machiavelli is a fallen philosopher. Cf. p. 298 and Mansfield, Virtue, p. 47.
114
De Alvarez commentary, p. 140.
115
Cf. Plato’s Apology.
116
Cf. Strauss, p. 303, n. 48.
66
Convention