Dangerously Honest Advice from History’s Most Controversial Philosopher

this video is sponsored by the visual Interactive Learning app imprint understand things like the psychology of social dynamics with engaging courses lessons and summaries get a free 7-Day trial and 20% off an annual premium membership using my link in the description what does it mean to be respected is fear or love more effective what does it mean to lead and be led what is success and goodness in a world filled with malice and ambiguity these questions along with many more were asked in attempted to be answered by one of the most revolutionary political philosophers in

history Nicolo makavelli makaveli's work attempted to dismantle the very ideas of goodness cruelty leadership and power he is now often regarded as one of History's first true pragmatists and the father of modern political science regardless of any universal truth to his ideas or lack thereof regardless of his intentions and regardless of One's Own interpretations of his work there is much to learn from makavelli both in terms of what to do and what not to do in life macelli was born in Florence Italy in 1469 his father was a doctor of law with a largely unsuccessful

practice likely more important to mlli story than his father's profession was his father's propensity toward reading particularly that of Greek authors which Expos Machiavelli to a library of books and the habit of reading this would surely play a role in laying the groundwork for his later perceptiveness and sensibilities A's later philosophy can also be largely attributed to the political conditions of Florence during his lifetime in the 15th century the Republic of Florence was riddled with conflicts and Chaos often leading to dysfunction insecurity violence and tyranny there were coups deceit assassinations and power struggles popes waged

Wars and alliances constantly changed most importantly the political and social events of Renaissance Florence displayed a clear Divergence from the ideal and intentions they seem to claim or be built on ideals of Christianity like kindness and humility how things were supposed to be always seemed to fall to the feet of how things actually were appearances were often facades religious and ethical ideals were often Shields used to cover the undermining devious nature of those who held them in early adulthood Maki experienced the government of Florence firsthand when he was impressively appointed to the second Chancery around

14 94 where he then received several position advancements and by the age of 29 obtained the role of secretary which put him in charge of the Republic's foreign affairs in 1512 however the Florentine Republic was overthrown and a family of bankers and rulers known as the medich family took back rule of Florence having previously ruled for many years before losing power after a failed peace treaty with France once back in rule the medi family suspected that makavelli was participating in a conspiracy against them which resulted in him being tortured and then exiled from Florence in

Exile Maki would produce his two major Works The Prince and discourses on living by far macelli is most known for the prince which was written around 1513 and then later published in 1532 though there are several ways one can interpret machi's intention with this work at least in part it was written as a gift for Lorenzo deichi the prince of Florence at the time likely in an effort to gain his favor and employment broadly the prince reads like an instruction manual an instruction manual for how a prince should rule in order to be effective crucially

in the prince Effectiveness blankets over all other goals and parameters makeli appears solely focused on Effectiveness above everything above goodness above virtue above loyalty above honesty and so on ultimately the prince articulates a largely aoral strategy for rulers and it weaves a sort of web of information to be used to catch others and hold on to power with like how a spider might regard a fly merely as a meal the prince seems to suggest that a ruler ought to regard their enemies anyone who gets in their way or anyone who they deem must be devoured

just the same as the fly the work is so extraordinarily dark cynical and pessimistic it was banned by the Catholic church for centuries and one prominent Cardinal by the name of Reginal pole wrote I had scarcely begun to read the book when I recognized the finger of Satan it's aw author is an enemy of the human race ironically Banning the book might itself have been resemblant of a Mach ellian tactic around and following Machiavelli's time princes and rulers were generally considered good largely based on their adherence to the moral principles of Christianity honesty meekness forgiveness

loyalty and so on makavelli however couldn't help but notice and get hung up on where these principles were derived from the story of Jesus Christ a story in which a man was humiliated rejected arrested tried and crucified from a practical human perspective this was not a story of Triumph but a story of defeat and ineffectiveness most rulers after all don't get resurrected literally or metaphorically makavelli could see the same story of defeat and ineffectiveness unfold with leaders merchants and individuals in general who followed suit in such ideals so-called good Statesmen or Merchants tended to lose

to those who pretended to be good and then used any number of malicious tactics when they needed to in order to serve themselves and so rather than meekness in the name of goodness makavelli believed a good successful leader was one who maintained their power and forged a stable secure Nation at essentially all costs and by whatever means necessary those who are at least willing to be immoral or amoral in their decisions and actions As Leaders tended to accomplish the goals and duties of a leader more often and more powerfully at least during this time and

at least in the eyes of makavelli one of the central ideas of maki's view on Effectiveness was respect and for him respect was safest and most likely to be sustained by fear as opposed to love or hatred to be clear it's not that being loved was bad in the mind of makavelli but rather in his own words upon this a question arises whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved one should wish to be both but because it is difficult to unite them in one person it is much safer to

be feared than loved fear in other words is hard for individuals to overlook and overcome and it is easy to instill and control love alternatively is volatile unpredictable and hard to control people can somewhat easily change the orientation and intensity of their love for any number of reasons hatred however is worse than both one's appearance as a leader must always be favorable and one's method of achieving this should be by finding the equilibrium of respect by balancing out both reward and Punishment tension and alleviation of course hopefully without needing to be said at this point

taken at face value the ideas contained in the prints are extremely questionable even from a somewhat tempered charitable view of these ideas and putting aside machi's potential reasoning for creating his works there are abundant criticisms of the ideas and Views consider what Fodor doeski observed and warned about hundreds of years later in his book Crime and Punishment with his character rodon rosanov who is purely rational istic and nihilistic and uses whatever methods he can to get ahead and serve himself but ultimately ends up being deprived and tormented by this view consider Emanuel kant's categorical imperative

with which he argues that moral actions must always be based on principles that consider and serve how everyone should act and would want to live not based on individual outcomes circumstances or subjective desires and perhaps most convincingly consider the very foundations of General morality and goodness which suggest that in order to live in a good world we each must act in accordance to how we would want the world to be how we would want others to act and treat us if we all go around clawing over each other to get to the top of the

pile there will be no pile left and if there is there will be nothing worthwhile to see from the top what is power in a world of ruins what is prosperity without the unbridled and unconcerned ability to share it healthily with others and moreover is not what the world becomes sometimes how we believe it ought to be if we want a good World both in terms of morality and prosperity we must believe in a good world and we must create a good World on that belief for makavelli however if the goal is power then perhaps

these points are irrelevant but the point is perhaps the goal of humans isn't solely power and if it is perhaps it shouldn't be at least not solely in like defense of makavelli however perhaps this cannot be said for everyone some if not many individuals might very well be chiefly interested in power and they might be fully willing to engage in or Justify malicious tactics to obtain and sustain it and perhaps this is where machi's work is actually most useful and practical another interpretation of the prince is not as a manual for rulers but a warning

for the ruled it is perhaps more of a portrait of humankind painted in the style of total realism with which one can see Humanity as it really is or can be and can understand what to look out for as well as how to protect oneself against it how we live is so different from how we ought to live that he who studies what ought to be done rather than what is done will learn the way to his downfall rather than to his preservation makavelli wrote moving somewhat beyond the realm of mere governance we can and

likely should consider a degree of macelli's insights in our own individual lives firstly it should be noted that likely for makavelli goodness and love are in fact ideals and are great whenever possible but they are just simply not always possible being as nice as one can is great but being dedicated to acting nicely all the time is almost certainly a performance and almost certainly a performance that will cause more harm than good the truth is even the kindest and most well-intended people cannot always be nice or good nor should they it is not only impossible

but it is sometimes counter to the very goals of niceness and goodness it can lead to self- neglect and self-sacrifice which can lead to resentment or worse it can lead to misalignment deceit or miscommunication intentional or unintentional if niess is always the sole goal one will have to constantly hide their true views hopes and Desires in order to avoid upsetting or offending anyone which inevitably leaves the truth hidden and the truth of course always comes to light hiding it only makes it come back in worse form life is at bottom a series of messy trade-offs

including that of ethics and pleasantness ultimately each of us are in our own lives part of the portrait of humanity we're all participants in groups and societies both local and Broad we each lead and are LED and we each experience varying Dynamics and degrees of power even if we have no interest in significant power or in playing the games of politics and Rule power extends to and from everything in which we engage to have any freedom at all is to have the power to withstand and prevent imposition and regardless of whether humans are inherently good

bad or neutral we will all encounter bad people trying to impose on us or otherwise good people trying to impose on us some people will inevitably screw you over take advantage of you ignore you belittle you or even hurt you if you let them men are so simple of mind and so much dominated by their immediate needs that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived wrote makavelli and so it is of utmost importance to not let them don't let them deceive you but also don't become them don't unnecessarily deceive

every time we do not defend our own world we open the door to dysfunction and disorder within it but likewise every time we do not strive to propel goodness into and forward in the world as a whole we close the door to Hope in a world worth living in before passing away in 1527 makavelli wrote several other books including the Art of War and Florentine histories following his death his work gained increasing notoriety and a term for the particular archetype of villain and villainous activity described by his work would be named after him now known

as machiavellianism but makaveli's thesis appears to be much less like that of villainous support and more likely to be that of the following apparently bad things can sometimes equate to good outcomes and stable effective outcomes for a nation is the utmost achievable good whether this is a good thesis or not is a different question in truth the origins and meaning of maki's work are both somewhat unknown and easy to misunderstand another interpretation of his work is that it was satire merely mocking the dysfunction of principality regardless what is known is that makavelli himself after writing

the prince never went on to obtain any sort of notable political success or power perhaps that was a matter of Misfortune perhaps his own methods and his espousing of them in the way he did were not so effective or perhaps he did not mean to suggest that said methods ought to be used and so he did not use them whatever the case may be his work would nonetheless go go on to inspire both real and fictional individuals he would Inspire the work of philosophers like Jean jaac rouso friedr N and Francis Bacon leaders like Henry

VII Charles I and likely countless more including perhaps the founding fathers of America and current world leaders and writers like William Shakespeare as well as most if not all comedic and tragic writers who've ever included a villainous archetypical character in their work perhaps more notably most people's adverse reaction to at least the more villainous interpretation of makavelli demonstrates an innate human impulse away from such ideas and towards something better makaveli's views on how the world was or is is perhaps far less important than how the world can be a man melli wrote who is used

to acting in one way never changes he must come to ruin when the times in changing no longer are in harmony with his ways with this perhaps Machi himself would know better than to take his own ideas seriously outright in all times and places throughout history we have as a Humanity adapted and evolved a great deal since the conditions of the Renaissance we are each new brush Strokes on the portrait of humanity and it is up to each of us to try to paint a smile on the face and it is up to each of

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