The Prince

Author:

Niccolo Machiavelli

Edition:

Bantam Classics; Reprint edition (September 1, 1984)

Summary:

Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, the pioneering work modern political science, is one of the best known, most widely quoted, and most often emulated political works of all time.

Machiavelli wrote The Prince with specific political motives while in forced exile. In this slim volume he formulates a view of politics perfectly attuned to a world in which mutual loyalty, faith, and honest intentions cannot be assumed to exist. Because of this quite unclassical cynicism that drove a sword between virtue and realism, focusing instead on power, sucess, image, and efficiency, Machiavelli is said to be the founder of modern realpolitik, ushering in a completely new stage in political philosophy.

In The Prince Machiavelli unmasks the reality of power drives in political life behind the appearance of pious intentions. Unlike such thinkers as Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine, who lamented this state of affairs and sought reform, Machiavelli was unique in actually advocating power politics and emphasizing the importance of appearances in its acquistion: “So a prince need not have all the aforementioned good qualities,” he writes, “but it is most essential that he appear to have them. Indeed, I should go so far to say that having them and always practicing them is harmful, while seeming to have them is useful.”

Machiavelli’s views on politics have endured because the conditions that formed them are still present. The loss of spiritual knowledge with accompanying emphasis on the material world characterizes the modern age.

– Peter Sampo, Niccolo Machiavelli: The Prince. In Louise Cowan & Os Guinness (Eds.), Invitation to the Classics.