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Submitted by airforceixi on December 5, 2005
Category: Philosophy
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Historically, the Renaissance is thought as a time of creativity and innovation. However, this did not pertain to literary arts and philosophy, but rather other arts and sciences. With the rediscovery of Aristotle and Plato in the 1100's and 1400's, people were able to combine their Christian beliefs with Paganism. Prior to the Renaissance, the views on life were quite bleak and pessimistic, as depicted by a painting of the Virgin Mary. During the Renaissance, this painting was copied and focused more on the detail of color and realism. This is an example of how the artists of the Renaissance, like Machiavelli, took ideas and beliefs of the past and modernized them. If the Renaissance is represented by Machiavelli, it was not entirely original and was based on ideas of the past.
Machiavelli criticized the past and reformed past ideas and actions to what he believed were best. In The Prince, he showed us how we should learn from the mistakes that rulers make. He went further into stating that a ruler should be "loved and feared" (The Prince, Ch. 1, pg. 450), implying that too much hatred could lead to a revolt. Based on history, Machiavelli stated that "men almost always walk along the beaten path, and what they do is almost always an imitation of what others have done before" (The Prince, Ch. 6). Not only did he state this theory, he followed it in his own writings which were modified forms of the works of Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and Epictetus. Machiavelli's belief on the grip of a ruler is based on Epicurus', who felt that securing political power relied on gaining the confidence of the people. Machiavelli built on this by stating that "A ruler, should above all, behave towards his subjects in such a way that, whatever happens, whether for good or ill, he has no need to change his policies" (The Prince, Ch. 9, pg. 437). By changing policies, the public would feel that the ruler is weak, also weakening the public's confidence in him. Machiavelli failed...
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