MIDDLE AGES AND RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHY

Christian Theology- Philosophy: Historical context. Neo-platonism: Plotinus Augustine of Hippo (354-

430) and the fathers of the Catholic Christian Church.

Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) and Scholastic theology.

Nominalism: Occam. Renaissance Philosophy and

Science: Historical context: Italy Science Revolution:

Copernicus, Keppler, Galileo, Newton.

Political Theory: N. Machiavelli

Bibliography used: wikipedia.org; Standford encyclopedia of philosophy

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Plato, Seneca, and Aristotle from a medieval manuscript,Devotional and Philosophical Writings, c. 1330

MIDDLE AGE: HISTORICAL CONTEXT

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The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three "ages": the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times.

The Middle Ages of Western Europe are commonly dated from the 5th century division of the Roman Empire (into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire) and the barbarian invasions until the 16th century schism of Christianity during the Protestant Reformation and the dispersal of Europeans worldwide in the start of the European overseas exploration.

These various changes all mark the beginning of the Early Modern period that preceded the Industrial Revolution.

Early Middle Ages In Western Europe from the 3rd Century onward, the political unity of the Roman Empire began to fragment.

As the central authority of Rome faded, the imperial territories were infiltrated by succeeding waves of "barbarian tribal confederations (Goths, Huns Bulgars, Avars and Magyars along with a large number of Germanic and later Slavic peoples)

Some of the incursions were by agreement, in which tribal groups were assigned lands to farm and settle in return for acting as allies and confederates of Rome. In other cases, particularly from the 4th Century onward, incursions were hostile, the land was seized and settled by force.

By the end of the 5th Century, the institutions of the Western Roman Empire had crumbled under the pressure of these incursions. Where semblances of Roman governance survived, these were largely in the form of weak and isolated city governments or else regional military commanders who had turned themselves into local strongmen in the absence of central authority. In the more developed eastern half of the empire, however, centralized institutions still continued to function, centred on the impregnably defended city of Constantinople.

Often now termed the Byzantine Empire, this Eastern Roman Empire was a direct continuation of the Christian Roman Empire of late antiquity.

High Middle Ages Beginning about the year 1000, greater stability came to the lands of Western Europe. With the brief exception of the Mongol incursions, major barbarian invasions had ceased. The advance of Christian kingdoms and military orders into previously regions in the Baltic and Finnic northeast brought the forced assimilation of numerous native peoples to the European entity.

FEUDALISM: SOCIAL SYSTEM IN MIDDLE AGES

Three primary elements characterized feudalism: lords, vassals and fiefs; the structure of feudalism can be seen in how these three elements fit together.

A lord was a noble who owned land, a vassal was a person who was granted land by the lord, and the land was known as a fief. In exchange for the fief, the vassal would provide military service to the lord.

The obligations and relations between lord, vassal and fief form the basis of feudalism.

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NEO- PLATONISM: A BRIDGE TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY Plotinus (ca. 205–270) is widely considered the father of Neoplatonism. Plotinus taught that there is a supreme, absolutely transcendent "One",

which is beyond all categories of being and non-being. Plotinus offers an alternative to the orthodox Christian notion of creation

ex nihilo (out of nothing), which would make God suffer the deliberations of a mind and actions of a will. Emanation ex deo (out of God), confirms the absolute transcendence of the One making the unfolding of the cosmos purely a consequence of the existence of the One. The One is in no way affected or diminished by the emanations. The One does not divide itself into multitudes of lesser beings, or parcel himself out piece by piece. Plotinus uses the analogy of the Sun which emanates light indiscriminately without thereby "lessening" itself, or a mirror reflection which in no way diminishes the object reflected.

The first emanation is Thought (Nous), identified with the "demiurge" in Plato's Timaeus. From Nous proceeds the "World Soul", which Plotinus divides into "upper" and "lower", identifying the lower with Nature. From the World Soul proceed individual human souls, and finally, matter, at the lowest level of being and perfection.

The essentially religious nature of Plotinus' philosophy may be further illustrated by his concept of attaining "ecstatic" union with the One. Porphyry relates that Plotinus achieved "union" several times during the years he knew him. Compare, of course, "enlightenment", "liberation", and other concepts of mystical union common to many Eastern and Western traditions.

Neoplatonism was sometimes used as a philosophical foundation for paganism, and as a means of defending paganism against Christianity; but many Christians were also influenced by Neoplatonism. The teachings of Plotinus influenced many of the early Christian Fathers, e.g., St. Augustine.

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MIDDLE AGE THEOLOGY: A SHORT INTRODUCTION Medieval philosophy is the philosophy of Western Europe in

the "era" now known as medieval or the Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. Though medieval philosophy is widely varied, one defining feature which distinguishes this period, in the western world, is the degree to which competing or contradictory philosophical views and systems were brought into dialogue with each other; mainly discussing the legacy of Christ.

Two periods can be distinguished: Patristic and Scholastic philosophy. Patristic philosophy: “fathers” of the Christian Church making sense

of the life of Christ using mainly Platonic Philosophy. Augustine of Hippo

Scholastic philosophy: with the re-apparition of Aristotle’s works a new synthesis is needed appearing plenty of different schools associated with first Universities.

The philosophy of this period is characterized by analysis of the nature and properties of God; the metaphysics involving substance, essences and accidents (that is, qualities that are respectively essential to substances possessing them or merely happening to be possessed by them), form, and divisibility; and logic and the philosophy of language.

Many of these philosophers took as their starting point the theories of Plato or Aristotle. Others, however, such as Tertullian, rejected Greek philosophy as antithetical to revelation and faith.

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FIRST CHRISTIANS’ THEOLOGY: PATRISTIC “PHILOSOPHY”. Tertullian, (155–230) Tertullian denounced

Christian doctrines he considered heretical, but later in life adopted views that came to be regarded as heretical themselves. He was the first great writer of Latin Christianity,

thus sometimes known as the "father of the Latin Church".

He introduced the term Trinity, as the Latin trinitas, to the Christian vocabulary and also probably of the formula "three Persons, one Substance" as the Latin "tres Personae, una Substantia" and also the terms vetus testamentum ("old testament") and novum testamentum ("new testament").

“I do believe because it is absurd” Justin (100 – 165) : “ Faith is superior and

reason (philosophy) must submit to faith” 6

AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (354-430) Biography and

Bibliography Faith and reason Epistemology: light

of God. God existence. Anthropology Ethics and Politics:

the city of God

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AUGUSTINE'S BIOGRAPHY

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Saint Augustine was born in 354 in Tagaste (present-day Souk Ahras, Algeria), a provincial Roman city in North Africa. He was raised and went to primary school in Thagaste. At age seventeen he went to Carthage to continue his education in rhetoric. His mother Monica was a devout catholic and his father Patricius a pagan, but Augustine followed the controversial Manichaean religion, much to the despair of his mother. As a youth Augustine lived a hedonistic lifestyle for a time, and in Carthage, he developed a relationship with a young woman who would be his “concubine” for over fifteen years. During this period he had a son, Adeodatus, with the young woman. His education and early career was in philosophy and rhetoric (the art of persuasion and public speaking).

He taught in Thagaste and Carthage, but desired to travel to Rome where he believed the best and brightest rhetoricians practiced. However, Augustine grew disappointed with the Roman schools, which he found apathetic. Once the time came for his students to pay their fees they simply fled. Manichaean friends introduced him to the prefect of the City of Rome, Symmachus, who had been asked to provide a professor of rhetoric for the imperial court at Milan.

The young provincial won the job and headed north to take up his position in late 384. At age thirty, Augustine had won the most visible academic chair in the Latin world, at a time when such posts gave ready access to political careers. However, he felt the tensions of life at an imperial court, lamenting one day as he rode in his carriage to deliver a grand speech before the emperor, that a drunken beggar he passed on the street had a less careworn existence than he.

His mother Monica pressured him to become a Catholic, but it was the bishop of Milan, Ambrose, who had most influence over Augustine. Ambrose was a master of rhetoric like Augustine himself, but older and more experienced. Prompted in part by Ambrose's sermons, and other studies, including a disappointing meeting with a key exponent of Manichaean theology, Augustine moved away from Manichaeism; but instead of becoming Catholic like Ambrose and Monica, he converted to a pagan Neoplatonic approach to truth, saying that for a time he had a sense of making real progress in his quest, although he eventually lapsed into skepticism.

AUGUSTINE’S BIOGRAPHY

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Augustine's mother had followed him to Milan and he allowed her to arrange a society marriage, for which he abandoned his concubine (however he had to wait two years until his fiancée came of age; he promptly took up in the meantime with another woman). It was during this period Augustine of Hippo uttered his famous prayer, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet"

In the summer of 386, after having read an account of the life of Saint Anthony of the Desert which greatly inspired him, Augustine underwent a profound personal crisis and decided to convert to Christianity, abandon his career in rhetoric, quit his teaching position in Milan, give up any ideas of marriage, and devote himself entirely to serving God and the practices of priesthood, which included celibacy. Key to this conversion was the voice of an unseen child he heard at one point telling him in a sing-song voice to "tolle lege" ("take up and read") the Bible, at which point he opened the Bible at random and fell upon the Epistle to the Romans 13:13, which reads: "Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying" (KJV). He would detail his spiritual journey in his famous Confessions, which went on to become a classic of both Christian theology and world literature. Ambrose baptized Augustine, along with his son, Adeodatus, on Easter day in 387, and soon thereafter in 388 he returned to Africa. On his way back to Africa his mother died, as did his son soon after, leaving him relatively alone in the world without family.

Upon his return to north Africa he created a monastic foundation at Thagaste for himself and a group of friends. In 391 he was ordained a priest in Hippo Regius, (now Annaba, in Algeria). He became a famous preacher (more than 350 preserved sermons are believed to be authentic), and was noted for combating the Manichaean heresy, to which he had formerly adhered.

In 396 he was made coadjutor bishop of Hippo (assistant with the right of succession on the death of the current bishop), and remained as bishop in Hippo until his death in 430. He left his monastery, but continued to lead a monastic life in the episcopal residence. He left a Rule (Latin, Regula) for his monastery that has led him to be designated the "patron saint of Regular Clergy", that is, Clergy who live by a monastic rule.

Augustine died on August 28, 430, during the siege of Hippo by the Vandals. It is said that he died just as the Vandals were tearing down the city walls of Hippo. He is said to have encouraged its citizens to resist the attacks, primarily on the grounds that the Vandals adhered to the Arian heresy.

AUGUSTINE’S BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Books: On Christian Doctrine, 397-426 Confessions, 397-398 The City of God, begun ca. 413,

finished 426 On the Trinity, 400-416 Enchiridion Retractions At the end of his life

(ca. 426-428) Augustine revisited his previous works in chronological order and suggested what he would have said differently in a work titled the Retractions, giving the reader a rare picture of the development of a writer and his final thoughts.

The Literal Meaning of Genesis On Free Choice

Letters (he wrote many letters to his congregation, here you have some of them with a more philosophical contend):

On the Spirit and the Letter On Nature and Grace On Man's Perfection in

Righteousness On Marriage and Concupiscence On the Soul and its Origin Against Two Letters of the

Pelagians On Grace and Free Will On the Immortality of the Soul On the Profit of Believing On the Morals of the Catholic

Church On Two Souls, Against the

Manichaeans On Baptism, Against the

Donatists

FAITH AND REASON: AUGUSTINE

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THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT: ARISTOTLE ARGUMENT IN MIDDLE AGES Framed as a formal proof, the first cause argument can be

stated as follows: Everything has a cause. Nothing can cause itself. Everything is caused by another thing. A causal chain cannot be of infinite length. There must be a first cause. God was the first cause.

The cosmological argument infers the existence of God from claims about the entire universe. Fundamentally, the argument is based on the claim that God must exist due to the fact that the universe needs a cause. In other words, the existence of the universe requires an explanation, and an active creation of the universe by a being outside of the universe—generally assumed to be God—is that explanation.

It was first defended by Aristotle and translated in Middle Ages to Christianity, being used latter by many modern philosophers as Descartes, Leibniz, Hume, Kant… 12

ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT: ANSELM (1033-1109) An ontological argument for the existence of God is an

argument that God's existence can be proved a priori, that is, by intuition and reason alone.

The argument works by examining the concept of God, and arguing that it implies the actual existence of God; that is, if we can conceive of God, then God exists — it is thus self-contradictory to state that God does not exist. This is obviously a controversial position, and the ontological argument has a long history of detractors and defenders.

The ontological argument was first proposed by Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) in Chapter 2 of the Proslogion. While Anselm did not propose an ontological system, he was very much concerned with the nature of being. He argued that there are necessary beings – things that cannot not exist – and contingent beings – things that may exist but whose existence is not necessary.

Anselm presents the ontological argument as part of a prayer directed to God. He starts with a definition of God, or a necessary assumption about the nature of God, or perhaps both. God is the greatest possible being and thus possesses all

perfections. Existence is a perfection. God exists.

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SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

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THOMAS AQUINAS (1224-1274) Biography and

Bibliography Epistemology Ontology: God exist. Anthropology Ethics Political Philosophy Conclusion

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RENAISSANCE: HISTORICAL CONTEXT In the traditional view, the Renaissance

was understood as a historical age in Europe that followed the Middle Ages and preceded the Reformation, spanning roughly the 14th through the 16th century.

The Italian Renaissance of the 15th century represented a re-connection of the west with classical antiquity, the absorption of knowledge (particularly mathematics), a focus on the importance of living well in the present (Renaissance humanism), and an explosion of the dissemination of knowledge brought on by the advent of printing. In addition, the creation of new techniques in art, poetry, and architecture led in turn to a radical change in the style and substance of the arts and letters.

The Italian Renaissance was often labeled as the beginning of the Modern Age, or the Early Modern.

Present day historians are skeptical about excessive claims for the modernity of the period and the common assumption that previous centuries were in some way "darker", viewing the Renaissance as a cultural program or movement based on humanism, arts, and the classics rather than an entire historical age. 18

Raffael: The School of Athens

TH

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THE PROBLEM OF UNIVERSALS: NOMINALISM VS. REALISM. Nominalism arose in reaction to the problem of universals. Specifically, accounting for the fact that some things are of the same type. All cats are cats, but why are they cats? What do they have all cats in common to be called cats? Something Universal that makes them cats or their reality of being cats and having some characteristics that we can detect?

This problem exist since Greek times, while Plato looked for an eternal object for science. Aristotle denied that Plato’s realism of ideas (universals) had sense, but Augustine of Hippo placed universals in the mind of God. Boecio (XI-XII) brought back this problem in Christianity.

The realist answer is that all the green things are green in virtue of the existence of a universal; a single abstract thing, in this case, that is a part of all the green things. Greenness is repeatable because there is one thing that manifests itself wherever there are green things. Universals have res, the majority of medieval philosophers followed the interpretation of Augustine of Hippo.

The antirealist position was to deny any res to universals, being just the sound we make when we pronounce a name or adjective; just flatus vocis.

After the XIII century both positions lightened, having a more moderate perspective over the same problems, (Nominalism and Moderate Realism by G. of Ockham and Tomas of Aquinas).

Nominalism denies the existence of universals. The motivation to deny universals flows from several concerns. The first one concerns where they exist. Where is this universal realm? One possibility is that it is outside of space and time. There are only individuals with similarities, universals are just product of human abstraction expressing in our languages the human capacity to see those simmilarities.

Moderate realists hold that there is no realm in which universals exist, but rather universals are located in space and time wherever they are manifest. Now, recall that a universal, like greenness, is supposed to be a single thing. Thomas of Aquinas defended that universals had three types of reality:

Ante rem when they were in God’s mind In rem, while they exist in each creature created by God, inside each individual. Post rem, being a product of the human capacity to detect them in the individuals.

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NOMINALISM VS REALISM. Nominalism is "the doctrine holding that abstract

concepts, general terms, or universals have no independent existence but exist only as names." Nominalism has also been defined as a philosophical position that various objects labeled by the same term have nothing in common but their name.

In this view, it is only actual physical particulars that can be said to be real and universals exist only post res, that is, subsequent to particular things.

Nominalism is best understood in contrast to realism. Philosophical realism holds that when we use descriptive terms such as "green" or "tree," the Forms of those concepts really exist, independently of the world in an abstract realm. Such thought is associated with Plato, for instance.

Nominalism, by contrast, holds that ideas represented by words have no real existence beyond our imaginations. 21

WILLIAM OF OCKHAM (1285-1347)

William of Ockham (1285-1347) was an English Franciscan friar and scholastic philosopher, from Ockham, a small village in England.

Although commonly known for Ockham's Razor, the methodological procedure that bears his name, William of Ockham also produced significant works on logic, physics, and theology.

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RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHY.

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Renaissance philosophy is the period of the history of philosophy in Europe that falls roughly during the between the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment.

Among the distinctive elements of Renaissance philosophy are the revival (renaissance means "rebirth") of classical civilization and learning; a partial return to the authority of Plato over Aristotle, who had come to dominate later medieval philosophy; and, among some philosophers, enthusiasm for the occult and Hermeticism.

The word now used for one of the most important threads of the Renaissance is "humanism" -- that is, an increasing focus on the temporal and personal over merely seeing this world as a gateway to the Christian afterlife. Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) wrote Oratio de Hominis Dignitate or Discourse on the Dignity of Man in 1486. Sometimes called "the manifesto of the Renaissance", it invokes Plato and Aristotle to argue for a conception of human worth which, while rooted in faith, spreads to a belief in the importance of the human ability to encompass all knowledge.

Petrarch (1304-1374) Leonardo Bruni (1374-1444) Lorenzo Valla (1405-1457) Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) Pietro Pomponazzi (1462-1525) Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Thomas More (1478-1535) Martin Luther (1483-1546) Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540) Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Rene Descartes (1596-1650) Nicholas of Cusa (1401 – 1464) Tommaso Campanella (1568 – 1639) Franciscus Patricius (1529 - 1597) Thomas Hobbs (1588 - 1679)

"Eppur si muove.“ "But it does move." Galileo Galilei

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NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI: POLITICAL REALISM Political and social

context: Italy and the Medici.

Biography and bibliography.

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HISTORICAL CONTEXT: FLORENCE, ITALY AND THE MEDICI.

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BIOGRAPHY Machiavelli was born in 1469 in the city-state of Florence, Italy, the second son of Bernardo di Niccolò Machiavelli and his wife Bartolommea di Stefano Nelli. His father was a well-known lawyer who belonged to an impoverished branch of an influential old Florentine family. Niccolo's education left him with a thorough knowledge of the Latin and Italian classics.

Machiavelli was born into a tumultuous era, in which Popes were leading armies and wealthy city-states of Italy were falling one after another into the hands of foreign powers -- France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. It was a time of constantly shifting alliances, condottieri who changed sides without warning, and governments rising and falling in the space of a few weeks.

Perhaps most significantly during this erratic upheaval, the rise of Lutheranism culminated in the sack of Rome in 1527 at the hands of rampaging German soldiers, the first time that had occurred in nearly twelve centuries. Rich cities like Florence and Genoa suffered a similar fate in the same years.

Machiavelli did not live to see the sack of Rome and Florence, but steeped as he was in the Byzantine politics of the age, it is no wonder that he turned his intelligence to analyzing the military and political events surrounding him.

He entered government service as a clerk in 1494; that same year, Florence expelled the Medici family, who had ruled the city for nearly sixty years, and restored the republic. Machiavelli was named as a member of the Council responsible for diplomatic negotiations and military matters.

From 1499 to 1512, he was sent on a number of diplomatic missions to the court of Louis XII in France, Ferdinand II of Aragón, and the Papacy in Rome.

From 1502 to 1503, he was a witness to the effective statebuilding methods of the soldier/churchman Cesare Borgia, an immensely capable general and statesman who was at that time engaged in enlarging his territories in central Italy through a mixture of audacity, prudence, self-reliance, firmness and, not infrequently, cruelty.

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BIOGRAPHY II From 1503 to 1506, Machiavelli was responsible for the

Florentine militia including the defense of the city. He distrusted mercenaries (a philosophy expounded at length in the Discorsi) and much preferred a citizen militia.

In August 1512, following a tangled series of battles, treaties, and alliances, the Medici with the help of Pope Julius I regained power in Florence and the republic was dissolved. Machiavelli, having played a significant role in the republic's anti-Medici government, was removed from office and in 1513 he was accused of conspiracy and arrested.

Although tortured on the rack he denied his involvement and was eventually released.

He retired to his estate at San Casciano near Florence and began writing the treatises that would ensure his place in the development of political philosophy.

Much has been made of the notion of two Machiavellis: one of The Prince, one of the Discorsi.

Machiavelli died in Florence in 1527. His resting place is unknown; however a cenotaph in his honor was placed at the Church of Santa Croce in Florence.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY If The Prince was Machiavelli's textbook on a monarchy, his

Discourse on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy (which comprise the early history of Rome) is a paean to the republic.

Machiavelli also wrote plays (Clizia, Mandragola), poetry (Sonetti, Canzoni, Ottave, Canti carnascialeschi) and novels (Belfagor arcidiavolo) as well as translating classical works.

Discorso sopra le cose di Pisa (1499) Del modo di trattare i popoli della Valdichiana ribellati (1502) Del modo tenuto dal duca Valentino nell' ammazzare Vitellozzo

Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, etc. (Description of the Methods Adopted by the Duke Valentino when Murdering Vitellozzo Vitelli, Oliverotto da Fermo, the Signor Pagolo, and the Duke di Gravina Orsini, 1502)

Discorso sopra la provisione del danaro (1502) Decennale primo (1506, poem in terza rima) Ritratti delle cose dell'Alemagna (1508-1512) Decennale secondo (1509) Ritratti delle cose di Francia (1510) Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio (Discourses on Livy - 3

vols., 1512-1517) Il Principe(The Prince, 1513)

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BIBLIOGRAPHY II Andria (1517, comedy translated from Terence) Mandragola (The Mandrake - 1518, prose comedy in five

acts, with prologue in verse) Della lingua (1514, dialogue) Clizia (1525, comedy in prose) Belfagor arcidiavolo (1515, novel) Asino d'oro (The Golden Ass - 1517, poem in terza rima, a

new version of the classic work by Apuleius) Dell'arte della guerra (The Art of War, 1519-1520) Discorso sopra il riformare lo stato di Firenze (1520) Sommario delle cose della citta di Lucca (1520) Vita di Castruccio Castracani da Lucca (The Life of

Castruccio Castracani of Lucca, 1520) Istorie fiorentine (Florentine Histories - 8 books, 1520-1525,

commissioned by Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici who went on to become Pope Clement VII).

Frammenti storici (1525) 35

He is a key figure of the Italian Renaissance and a central figure of its political component, most widely known for his treatises on realist political theory (The Prince) on the one hand and republicanism (Discourses on Livy) on the other.

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THE PRINCE: NATURE OF POWER It has been a common view among political philosophers that there

exists a special relationship between moral goodness and legitimate authority. Many authors (especially those who composed mirror-of-princes books or royal advice books during the Middle Ages and Renaissance) believed that the use of political power was only rightful if it was exercised by a ruler whose personal moral character was strictly virtuous (remember Plato’s theory).

It is precisely this moralistic view of authority that Machiavelli criticizes at length in his best-known treatise, The Prince. For Machiavelli, there is no moral basis on which to judge the difference between legitimate and illegitimate uses of power. Rather, authority and power are essentially coequal: whoever has power has the right to command; but goodness does not ensure power and the good person has no more authority by virtue of being good.

Thus, in direct opposition to a moralistic theory of politics, Machiavelli says that the only real concern of the political ruler is the acquisition and maintenance of power (although he talks less about power per se than about “maintaining the state.”)

In this sense, Machiavelli presents a trenchant criticism of the concept of authority by arguing that the notion of legitimate rights of rulership adds nothing to the actual possession of power. The Prince purports to reflect the self-conscious political realism of an author who is fully aware that goodness and right are not sufficient to win and maintain political office.

Machiavelli thus seeks to learn and teach the rules of political power. For Machiavelli, power characteristically defines political activity, and hence it is necessary for any successful ruler to know how power is to be used. Only by means of the proper application of power, Machiavelli believes, can individuals be brought to obey and will the ruler be able to maintain the state in safety and security.

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POWER AND THE PRINCE Machiavelli's political theory, then, represents a concerted effort to

exclude issues of authority and legitimacy from consideration in the discussion of political decision-making and political judgement. Nowhere does this come out more clearly than in his treatment of the relationship between law and force. Machiavelli acknowledges that good laws and good arms constitute the dual foundations of a well-ordered political system.

But he immediately adds that since coercion creates legality, he will concentrate his attention on force. He says, “Since there cannot be good laws without good arms, I will not consider laws but speak of arms” (Machiavelli 1965, 47).

In other words, the legitimacy of law rests entirely upon the threat of coercive force; authority is impossible for Machiavelli as a right apart from the power to enforce it. Consequently, Machiavelli is led to conclude that fear is always preferable to affection in subjects, just as violence and deception are superior to legality in effectively controlling them.

Machiavelli observes that “one can say this in general of men: they are ungrateful, disloyal, insincere and deceitful, timid of danger and avid of profit…. Love is a bond of obligation which these miserable creatures break whenever it suits them to do so; but fear holds them fast by a dread of punishment that never passes” (Machiavelli 1965, 62; translation altered).

As a result, Machiavelli cannot really be said to have a theory of obligation separate from the imposition of power; people obey only because they fear the consequences of not doing so, whether the loss of life or of privileges. And of course, power alone cannot obligate one, inasmuch as obligation assumes that one cannot meaningfully do otherwise.

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POWER AND THE PRINCE Concomitantly, a Machiavellian perspective directly attacks the notion of

any grounding for authority independent of the sheer possession of power. For Machiavelli, people are compelled to obey purely in deference to the superior power of the state.

If I think that I should not obey a particular law, what eventually leads me to submit to that law will be either a fear of the power of the state or the actual exercise of that power. It is power which in the final instance is necessary for the enforcement of conflicting views of what I ought to do; I can only choose not to obey if I possess the power to resist the demands of the state or if I am willing to accept the consequences of the state's superiority of coercive force.

Machiavelli's argument in The Prince is designed to demonstrate that politics can only coherently be defined in terms of the supremacy of coercive power; authority as a right to command has no independent status. He substantiates this assertion by reference to the observable realities of political affairs and public life as well as by arguments revealing the self-interested nature of all human conduct. For Machiavelli it is meaningless and futile to speak of any claim to authority and the right to command which is detached from the possession of superior political power.

The ruler who lives by his rights alone will surely wither and die by those same rights, because in the rough-and-tumble of political conflict those who prefer power to authority are more likely to succeed. Without exception the authority of states and their laws will never be acknowledged when they are not supported by a show of power which renders obedience inescapable.

The methods for achieving obedience are varied, and depend heavily upon the foresight that the prince exercises. Hence, the successful ruler needs special training.

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POWER, VIRTÙ, AND FORTUNE Machiavelli presents to his readers a vision of political rule purged of extraneous moralizing influences and fully aware of the foundations of politics in the effective exercise of power.

The term that best captures Machiavelli's vision of the requirements of power politics is virtù. While the Italian word would normally be translated into English as “virtue,” and would ordinarily convey the conventional connotation of moral goodness, Machiavelli obviously means something very different when he refers to the virtù of the prince. In particular, Machiavelli employs the concept of virtù to refer to the range of personal qualities that the prince will find it necessary to acquire in order to “maintain his state” and to “achieve great things,” the two standard markers of power for him.

This makes it brutally clear there can be no equivalence between the conventional virtues and Machiavellian virtù. Machiavelli expects princes of the highest virtù to be capable, as the situation requires, of behaving in a completely evil fashion. For the circumstances of political rule are such that moral viciousness can never be excluded from the realm of possible actions in which the prince may have to engage. Machiavelli's sense of what it is to be a person of virtù can thus be summarized by his recommendation that the prince above all else must acquire a “flexible disposition.”

That ruler is best suited for office, on Machiavelli's account, who is capable of varying her/his conduct from good to evil and back again “as fortune and circumstances dictate” (Machiavelli 1965, 66).

It is not a coincidence that Machiavelli also uses the term virtù in his book The Art of War in order to describe the strategic prowess of the general who adapts to different battlefield conditions as the situation dictates. Machiavelli sees politics to be a sort of a battlefield on a different scale. Hence, the prince just like the general needs to be in possession of virtù, that is, to know which strategies and techniques are appropriate to what particular circumstances.

Thus, virtù winds up being closely connected to Machiavelli's notion of the power. The ruler of virtù is bound to be competent in the application of power; to possess virtù is indeed to have mastered all the rules connected with the effective application of power. Virtù is to power politics what conventional virtue is to those thinkers who suppose that moral goodness is sufficient to be a legitimate ruler: it is the touchstone of political success.

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POWER, VIRTÙ, AND FORTUNE

What is the conceptual link between virtù and the effective exercise of power for Machiavelli? The answer lies with another central Machiavellian concept, Fortuna (usually translated as “fortune”). Fortuna is the enemy of political order, the ultimate threat to the safety and security of the state.

Machiavelli's use of the concept has been widely debated without a very satisfactory resolution. Suffice it to say that, as with virtù, Fortuna is employed by him in a distinctive way. Where conventional representations treated Fortuna as a mostly benign, if fickle, goddess, who is the source of human goods as well as evils, Machiavelli's fortune is a malevolent and uncompromising fount of human misery, affliction, and disaster. While human Fortuna may be responsible for such success as human beings achieve, no man can act effectively when directly opposed by the goddess (Machiavelli 1965, 407-408).

Machiavelli's most famous discussion of Fortuna occurs in Chapter 25 of The Prince, in which he proposes two analogies for understanding the human situation in the face of events. Initially, he asserts that fortune resembles “one of our destructive rivers which, when it is angry, turns the plains into lakes, throws down the trees and buildings, takes earth from one spot, puts it in another; everyone flees before the flood; everyone yields to its fury and nowhere can repel it.”

Yet the furor of a raging river does not mean that its depredations are beyond human control: before the rains come, it is possible to take precautions to divert the worst consequences of the natural elements. “The same things happen about Fortuna,” Machiavelli observes, “She shows her power where virtù and wisdom do not prepare to resist her, and directs her fury where she knows that no dykes or embankments are ready to hold her” (Machiavelli 1965, 90). Fortuna may be resisted by human beings, but only in those circumstances where “virtù and wisdom” have already prepared for her inevitable arrival.

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POWER, VIRTÙ, AND FORTUNE Machiavelli reinforces the association of Fortuna with the blind strength of nature by explaining that political success depends upon appreciation of the operational principles of Fortuna. His own experience has taught him that “it is better to be impetuous than cautious, because Fortuna is a woman and it is necessary, in order to keep her under, to beat and maul her.”

In other words, Fortuna demands a violent response of those who would control her. “She more often lets herself be overcome by men using such methods than by those who proceed coldly,” Machiavelli continues, “therefore always, like a woman, she is the friend of young men, because they are less cautious, more spirited, and with more boldness master her” (Machiavelli 1965, 92). The wanton behavior of Fortuna demands an aggressive, even violent response, lest she take advantage of those men who are too retiring or “effeminate” to dominate her.

Machiavelli's remarks point toward several salient conclusions about Fortuna and her place in his intellectual universe. Throughout his corpus, Fortuna is depicted as a primal source of violence (especially as directed against humanity) and as antithetical to reason. Thus, Machiavelli realizes that only preparation to pose an extreme response to the vicissitudes of Fortuna will ensure victory against her. This is what virtù provides: the ability to respond to fortune at any time and in any way that is necessary.

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