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Political Pessimists: Hobbes and Machiavelli. Niccolo Machiavelli and Thomas
Hobbes each had negative opinions about human nature ...
Submitted by freepapers0703 on May 6, 2007
Category: Philosophy
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Niccolo Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes each had negative opinions about human nature which varies a great deal from the general consensus
about human nature today. These views became the basis for their theories on politics, treatment of people and government.
Machiavelli believed that "men in general...are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger, and covetous of gain; as long as you benefit them, they are entirely yours," however their "love is held by a chain of obligation which, men being selfish, is broken whenever it serves their purpose" (Prince, xvii, p. 32-33). This means simply that Machiavelli believes that men are extremely selfish and will do what they must to get what they want. Machiavelli believes that self interest drives men in all aspects of life; therefore he assumes that regardless of what a person should do, unless the action is in accordance with their interests, they will not do it. Machiavelli said "[the people] will all think of their own interests...for men will always be false...unless they are compelled by necessity to be true" (Prince, xxiii, p.45-46). Gregory Kavka called Machiavelli's opinion on human nature: "predominant egoism" which "says that self-interested motives tend to take precedence over non-self-interested motives in determining human actions
non-self-interested motives usually give way to self-interested motives when there is a conflict." (Kavka, 64) In this way, Machiavelli did not mean that men always acted out of self-interest but that a ruler should not count on someone actually acting because of another factor. Machiavelli also believed that a ruler should appeal to this negative view of human nature by installing fear and love in their people. However, he said if both could not be achieved, fear would be better. By saying this, Machiavelli is implying that a ruler must appeal to their subject's sense of fear in order to keep them from doing something out of their...
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