Platos and Aristotles view of Politics Research Paper

Platos and Aristotles view of Politics - Research Paper Example Machiavelli’s political thoughts involved reformulation of the citizenship concept in relation to liberty. Machiavelli wrote ‘The Prince’ in a time when the politics in Italy suffered from conflicts, blackmail, and violence. He gave advice on the best way of ruling. As a result, he appeared very different from earlier political writers that viewed politics as an extension of morals, and whose theories appeared impractical. Some factors highlighted in Prince Theory include Human Nature: In his formulation of advice to rulers, Machiavelli believed that most people have the primary interest in them and remain contented unless horrible things happen to them. He pointed out that friendship obtained through payments in insecure and unreliable. Virtu and Fortuna: Machiavelli acknowledged the existence of two success factors. Virtu refers to skills, wisdom, prowess, good decision making, strength, and free will while fortunate describes the random variations, probability, luck and the external factors outside a person’s control. He believes that these factors determine the success or failure, and they can be applied in controlling the human actions, with each factor carrying an equal significance approximately half of the result. Machiavelli recommends for the study of other people in order to learn from the effective points by the political leaders. Hence, the reference to lion due to its strength and ferocity and fox due to its slyness, cunningness and outmaneuvering of the enemies.