[00:00] [Music]
[00:05] machiavelli's the prince is one of the
[00:07] most important turning points in the
[00:08] history of western political philosophy
[00:11] it was written
[00:12] while machiavelli himself was in
[00:14] retirement from active political life
[00:16] 1532
[00:18] and prior to that he had worked for the
[00:20] medici family in florence
[00:23] and he was one of the great dark
[00:25] characters
[00:26] in the history of western thought in
[00:28] some respects he's kind of like the
[00:29] darth vader of philosophy he represents
[00:32] all that is evil and unholy
[00:34] in some respect the spiritual antipode
[00:36] of someone like marcus aurelius
[00:38] machiavelli is a very secular this
[00:41] worldly sort of thinker
[00:43] he's the kind of person that plato
[00:45] warned us about
[00:47] the kind of man who self-consciously
[00:49] seeks only the gratification
[00:52] of his desire for political power
[00:55] a man who
[00:56] turns ruthlessness and treachery into
[00:59] matters of principle
[01:01] and that's what makes him so good at
[01:02] them it doesn't it's not that he's
[01:04] treacherous or lying or faithless or
[01:06] ruthless once in a while he's that way
[01:08] all the time
[01:10] he's turned it into a system
[01:12] in that respect
[01:14] the writings of machiavelli which are
[01:17] not limited to the prince he also wrote
[01:19] a number of historical works a work
[01:21] called the discourse on livy he studied
[01:23] roman history a great deal
[01:24] machiavelli's works our kind of handbook
[01:27] on how to be bad particularly
[01:29] how to be politically treacherous
[01:32] how to gain power
[01:34] for machiavelli the ultimate good for
[01:36] human beings is the attainment of
[01:38] political power and he is not choosy
[01:40] about the means whatever works works he
[01:43] is
[01:44] among the most practical of men
[01:47] his idea of an of an excellent
[01:48] politician is someone like caesar borgia
[01:50] caesar boys mentioned many times in the
[01:53] prince and if you know what caesar
[01:55] voyager was like he has quite an
[01:56] interesting career
[01:58] his father is pope alexander vi
[02:01] we won't discuss how that could be the
[02:03] case of course but he's the illegitimate
[02:04] son of alexander vi
[02:06] his sister is lucrezia borgia a most
[02:08] unpleasant woman who spends a good bit
[02:10] of her time poisoning their friends and
[02:12] political rivals
[02:14] and uh caesar borgia
[02:17] was the sort of guy who wouldn't let
[02:19] mere family ties get in the way of
[02:22] political power his older brother was
[02:25] the one who was destined or
[02:28] chosen by the father alexander vi to get
[02:31] most political performance and
[02:33] seize a boy who didn't like that so he
[02:35] killed his older brother conspired
[02:37] against him and killed him machiavelli
[02:39] thinks that's wonderful machiavelli says
[02:41] that warms his heart makes him feel
[02:42] that's finally somebody sees through
[02:45] the lies and the illusions and the
[02:47] pretensions of conventional morality for
[02:49] machiavelli we live in the jungle we
[02:51] live in a totally amoral universe
[02:53] independent of scripture independent of
[02:56] revealed religion independent of the
[02:57] will of god there's only the will of man
[03:00] in that respect machiavelli is a
[03:02] path-breaking political philosophy no
[03:03] matter how evil or pernicious his
[03:05] teachings
[03:07] we ignore him at our peril
[03:09] and
[03:10] like it or not there is a dark and
[03:12] sparkling brilliance to this like black
[03:14] diamonds
[03:16] you look at it and you realize that
[03:18] however horrifying his conclusions
[03:20] there's a certain grim truth in what he
[03:22] says
[03:23] and we may not accept the entirety of it
[03:25] but like it or not the world of politics
[03:28] isn't ugly
[03:30] profane immoral place at least to a
[03:33] great extent
[03:34] and those of us who wish to be practical
[03:36] politicians will find it very hard to
[03:39] keep our hands completely clean
[03:41] machiavelli wishes to liberate us
[03:44] from
[03:45] what he views as being childish insipid
[03:48] guilt feelings
[03:49] about
[03:51] political morality there are no rules in
[03:54] politics in the same way and for the
[03:55] same reason there are no rules in nature
[03:57] with machiavelli we have one of the
[03:59] great restatements
[04:01] of a political theme introduced in
[04:02] western political thought in the first
[04:04] book of the republic
[04:05] if you stretch your memory back to
[04:07] professor rakuti's lectures last
[04:09] time when he talked about the republic
[04:11] in the first book of the republic
[04:12] socrates primary antagonist is a man
[04:14] named thrasymachus
[04:16] he's a sophist anthrosimicus holds the
[04:18] view that justice is the advantage of
[04:20] the stronger in other words whoever it
[04:23] is that has the most force the most
[04:24] military power makes the rules and
[04:27] justice is whatever they tell you to do
[04:29] so when the nazis win whatever they tell
[04:31] you to do is just if the stalinists win
[04:33] whatever they tell you is just if
[04:35] machiavelli wins or the borgias win
[04:37] doesn't matter as long as they have the
[04:38] power to coerce you whatever they tell
[04:40] you is just
[04:41] so simica's view then
[04:43] is that
[04:44] justice is a simple matter of coercion
[04:48] and there is no moral order to the world
[04:52] now this view is
[04:55] thoroughly criticized
[04:56] and at least apparently refuted in the
[04:58] first book of the republic
[05:01] but
[05:02] like all profound ideas resonance of it
[05:05] is always at least implicitly in the
[05:07] western political tradition
[05:10] and machiavelli regains
[05:13] the nerve to say there is no moral order
[05:16] to the world
[05:17] he's the first man to reassert what
[05:20] thracemica said in the first book of the
[05:21] republic that we live peculiarly and
[05:24] exclusively here in the realm of nature
[05:26] that there is no metaphysical realm by
[05:28] which to judge the good and evil of
[05:30] human actions there's only power force
[05:33] brutality
[05:35] you adjust to it or you succumb to it
[05:36] those are your choices
[05:39] machiavelli wants to teach us how to
[05:41] become tyrannical men and if you stop
[05:43] and think about the first book of the
[05:44] republic i believe you will recognize
[05:46] that thrasymachus has the tyrannical
[05:48] soul the soul is driven entirely by
[05:50] passion that thinks reason is something
[05:52] is an afterthought for the feeble who
[05:54] want to make up stories about why we
[05:56] ought to be good rather than evil
[05:58] machiavelli and thrasymachus both wish
[06:01] to liberate us from metaphysics and
[06:02] morality
[06:05] both of them say
[06:06] in this world of
[06:08] darkness flux
[06:10] double crossing and backstabbing
[06:12] the only way to get ahead the only way
[06:15] to achieve human felicity human
[06:16] happiness human
[06:18] goodness is to get them before they get
[06:21] you
[06:23] donald trump
[06:24] recently wrote a book called the art of
[06:26] the deal
[06:27] you could say that machiavelli's book is
[06:29] the art of the double cross
[06:32] he not only
[06:34] explains how to be treacherous he gives
[06:36] you examples
[06:38] he calls them from history he calls them
[06:40] from
[06:41] contemporary politics as well but in
[06:43] every case
[06:45] he shows that crime not only pays but
[06:47] that goodness is a waste of time and
[06:50] goodness will ultimately be your
[06:51] downfall
[06:52] in some respects machiavelli's project
[06:55] is like that of friedrich nietzsche
[06:57] it'll be a re-evaluation of all values
[06:59] he's going to stand the christian and
[07:01] the platonic view of righteousness
[07:04] of political morality on its head
[07:07] all the things that we previously
[07:08] thought to be good turn out to be evil
[07:11] all the things that we previously
[07:12] thought to be evil turn out to be good
[07:14] or if not good pleasurable practical
[07:17] useful
[07:18] handy
[07:21] machiavelli
[07:22] has written a number of works the prince
[07:24] which is his most famous work is a
[07:26] remarkably brief piece of work usually
[07:28] when a great philosopher has some
[07:30] important message to
[07:32] give
[07:33] he can't control his pain and if you
[07:35] look at say aquinas's theologica it goes
[07:37] on and on and on it's interminable
[07:39] machiavelli has not written that sort of
[07:41] a book it's a 90-page book in and out
[07:43] it's meant to be a practical handbook
[07:45] for the tyrant
[07:47] machiavelli's book
[07:48] the prince was joseph stalin's favorite
[07:51] work he kept it on his night table
[07:53] and it's not hard to see why it shows
[07:55] you how to be a good tyrant a good in
[07:58] the sense of effective good in the sense
[07:59] of practical not good in the sense of
[08:01] morally good because that's only for old
[08:03] ladies and kids
[08:04] nobody seriously believes that stuff
[08:06] now this may sound like a very cynical
[08:08] set of ideas in fact it is
[08:10] but although it is very cynical there is
[08:13] an element of it which is practical
[08:15] which is true like it or not
[08:17] if you are completely good completely
[08:19] virtuous i am not certain that you will
[08:21] be a completely effective and efficient
[08:23] politician i don't know that i want the
[08:24] president to be as kind and as
[08:26] thoughtful and as philosophical as
[08:28] marcus aurelius maybe we would be harmed
[08:30] as much as benefited by that
[08:32] i am sure on the other hand that i don't
[08:34] want the president to be like
[08:35] machiavelli's prince because it's a sure
[08:37] thing we will be harmed rather than
[08:39] benefited by that
[08:41] prior to going into seclusion and
[08:42] writing this book
[08:45] machiavelli had
[08:46] worked for the medici family in florence
[08:49] who were influential figures in
[08:51] florentine and thus in italian politics
[08:54] and
[08:55] although he had been serving them and
[08:56] helping them out and advising them on
[08:58] political matters the medici had been
[09:00] thrown out of florence had been chased
[09:01] out and with them goes machiavelli he
[09:03] goes into retirement
[09:04] now there's a definite sense here that
[09:06] here's a man who's very intelligent very
[09:09] bright but awfully frustrated he gives
[09:12] you that sense when you read the book of
[09:13] being a monday morning quarterback god
[09:15] how he wants to go back into there in
[09:17] practical politics he hates being among
[09:18] the musty books in the library it's not
[09:20] interesting to him what he primarily
[09:22] wants is to run people's lives what he
[09:25] primarily wants is political power and
[09:27] after he gets political power what he
[09:29] wants then is more political power
[09:30] because you can never have enough
[09:32] as socrates pointed out about the
[09:34] tyrannical man this is a thirst that can
[09:36] never be slaked no matter how much
[09:38] satisfaction you get for these desires
[09:40] nothing is ever enough you're like
[09:42] someone that can't get enough to eat or
[09:44] can't get enough to drink no matter how
[09:46] much you eat a drink it's never
[09:47] satisfactory so here's one of the great
[09:49] dissatisfied individuals and he's even
[09:52] more dissatisfied because he's forced to
[09:53] be an armchair quarterback and no one is
[09:55] more practical than nicola machiavelli
[09:59] he dedicates his book
[10:01] to one of the medici family and it's one
[10:04] of the most flowery and flattering and
[10:08] adoring introductions one could possibly
[10:10] imagine
[10:11] and of course it's no less cynical than
[10:12] the rest of the book
[10:14] the book itself tells the wise prince
[10:16] the monarch the he who would be tyrant
[10:18] that he must be very careful to avoid
[10:20] flatterers because flatterers are
[10:22] dangerous men
[10:25] your noble highness
[10:28] a clever fellow like the medici for whom
[10:30] machiavelli is writing the book
[10:33] is going to see through
[10:34] the introduction but then wonder do i
[10:37] want this guy on my side or do i want
[10:38] him on someone else's side this is a
[10:40] very difficult thing to consider a
[10:42] difficult concern for a real prince look
[10:44] at the examples that we get in the in
[10:46] machiavelli's the prince
[10:48] he gives examples of how to take over
[10:50] countries that you are born to for
[10:52] example if your father is the king and
[10:54] your f and your your father dies how you
[10:57] take succession there very easy the
[10:58] people will accept it you won't have any
[11:00] problem with them and when you are
[11:02] trying to establish your rule as a new
[11:04] ruler in this legitimate government the
[11:06] best thing to do
[11:07] is to establish fear because you can
[11:10] count on fear
[11:11] machiavelli says it would be very nice
[11:13] if you could be loved
[11:15] having being loved by your people by
[11:16] your subjects is a very handy thing for
[11:18] ruler and machiavelli says it's not that
[11:19] love is intrinsically good but rather
[11:21] love is handy and practical and if you
[11:22] people love you they're less likely to
[11:24] give you a problem so you should
[11:25] cultivate love
[11:27] now
[11:28] love is is a nice thing to have but
[11:31] fear fear is the kind of thing
[11:32] machiavelli really understands he likes
[11:34] fear because fear is one of those things
[11:36] you can count on and if as machiavelli
[11:38] points out you are forced to choose
[11:40] between having the people love you and
[11:42] having them fear you make sure you have
[11:43] them fear you
[11:45] because you can count on fear people's
[11:47] love you'll never be sure enough about
[11:49] that but fear you can count on so it's
[11:51] important to be
[11:53] feared the next best thing is to be
[11:55] loved the only thing the prince must
[11:57] avoid according to machiavelli the
[11:59] prince cannot afford to be hated when
[12:01] the people hate you they will come and
[12:03] get you one way or another they will
[12:05] depose you and the whole name of this
[12:06] game is to take power and to control
[12:08] power and to make it your own and then
[12:10] to absorb more power
[12:13] there's a part in which he says well
[12:15] it's nice if you can inherit a kingdom
[12:17] from your father if your father has to
[12:18] be the king but very few of us are lucky
[12:20] enough to have that circumstance now you
[12:22] must think back to your head that in
[12:23] your head that machiavelli's father
[12:25] was the pope which is very handy
[12:27] circumstances just the problem is you
[12:28] you can't get to the papacy by
[12:30] hereditary succession so we have kind of
[12:32] a difficulty there yeah they've been
[12:33] careful about that
[12:35] well
[12:36] machiavelli says if you don't have to be
[12:38] born to the throne if you don't get the
[12:40] royal purple by matter of birth there's
[12:42] always usurpation which is a great
[12:44] favorite activity for him he really
[12:45] likes usurpation so the idea of getting
[12:48] close to the throne of gradually
[12:50] weaseling your way into the court
[12:52] and telling of course the king or the
[12:54] prince or the legitimate ruler how much
[12:56] you admire him and how well you think of
[12:58] him and how important it is to
[13:00] constantly be pursuing machiavellian
[13:02] political policies
[13:04] the more you'll become important
[13:06] indispensable the more you could stab
[13:07] him in the back and take control of the
[13:09] government yourself
[13:11] machiavelli's
[13:12] moral universe
[13:14] is the moral universe of the wolf of the
[13:16] predatory animal
[13:18] machiavelli
[13:19] and his political philosophy
[13:21] has
[13:22] a horrifying brilliance through it on
[13:24] account of the fact that it's consistent
[13:25] with much of what we see in political
[13:27] life on an everyday basis
[13:30] the drawback of this conception of
[13:31] political philosophy and the contempt
[13:33] and conception of an amoral universe is
[13:35] that it makes people
[13:38] no longer social animals
[13:40] stop and think about what the
[13:41] machiavellian wants us to do he wants us
[13:44] to constantly betray others
[13:46] both above us in the political structure
[13:48] and below us in the political structure
[13:49] in order to satisfy our own lust for
[13:51] power a lust which is never satisfied
[13:53] which only grows bigger and bigger as
[13:55] its objects become bigger and bigger
[13:57] that's one of the reasons incidentally
[13:58] where machiavelli likes roman history so
[14:00] much roman history is full of creatures
[14:02] like this machiavelli thinks they're
[14:03] wonderful he thinks that the italy of
[14:05] the 1500s 16th century italy is feeble
[14:09] prostrate broken up into fragmented
[14:12] warring little cliques
[14:13] that prevent real political glory from
[14:16] coming into being the reason why he
[14:17] likes a horrifying figure like caesar
[14:19] borgia is that caesar borgia
[14:22] is the man of virtue virtu virtue is
[14:27] exactly the opposite of platonic virtue
[14:29] it is much more like thrasamakian virtue
[14:31] it is the virtue of the man that tells
[14:33] lies that stabs people in the back that
[14:34] does whatever it takes to satisfy his
[14:37] unquenchable desire for power
[14:40] so what we need is a man of year two and
[14:42] this book is designed to create veer two
[14:43] the problem is that this viewer ii is
[14:45] the virtue of the predatory animal not
[14:48] of the rational human being or it's the
[14:50] rational human being insofar as that
[14:52] rationality is completely
[14:55] subjugated or subordinate to one's
[14:58] irrational desires and if you stop and
[15:00] look back at what the soul of the
[15:02] tyrannical man was supposed to look like
[15:04] in the republic you realize that the
[15:05] desiring part is really running the
[15:06] rational part the rational part of the
[15:08] soul is just an instrument in the hands
[15:10] of his desire for power or sex or money
[15:13] or what have you machiavelli takes that
[15:15] same conception of the soul desire comes
[15:17] first my desire for power
[15:19] determines all my other activities and
[15:21] my rationality is subordinate to that so
[15:23] machiavelli wants us to have that kind
[15:25] of veer too the virtue of the leopard
[15:28] the
[15:29] the guiltless killing of the hawk
[15:32] the hawk doesn't feel bad about killing
[15:33] sparrows that's the way hawks are the
[15:35] way of nature is the way of cruelty we
[15:37] must learn to live with that or die with
[15:39] that if you get if you get your way
[15:40] through machiavelli
[15:42] excuse me
[15:43] now
[15:44] let's come back to the problem of italy
[15:47] italy is fragmented italy is broken up
[15:49] italy is in a historically horrible set
[15:51] of circumstances and machiavelli is
[15:54] sounding a clarion call to break through
[15:56] from old ecclesiastical borrowings old
[15:59] scriptural conceptions of virtue old
[16:02] greco-roman conceptions of morality what
[16:05] machiavelli wants is a good practical
[16:07] politician that will scheme and lie his
[16:09] way to the top and once he gets to the
[16:11] top of a particular italian city-state
[16:13] he will attack one city-state after
[16:15] another and unify italy and create
[16:16] something like a new roman empire there
[16:19] can be new glory a new this worldly
[16:22] satisfaction of the potential for human
[16:24] greatness remember that machiavelli is
[16:26] completely opposed to all metaphysical
[16:28] interpretations of the world machiavelli
[16:30] does not believe in heaven and hell
[16:32] machiavelli does not believe in god
[16:34] machiavelli does not believe in the
[16:35] realm of the forms all machiavelli
[16:37] believes in is here and now
[16:39] the main chance how are we going to get
[16:40] what we want right now and machiavelli's
[16:43] conception of virtue of the blessed
[16:45] human condition of the well-organized
[16:47] human soul and of the practically run
[16:50] political society all come together in
[16:53] this figure of the ruthless tyrannical
[16:56] prince
[16:58] now this tyrannical prince
[16:59] will be
[17:00] as machiavelli says like a lion and a
[17:02] fox when he's faced with military
[17:06] dangers or threats that are direct and
[17:07] obvious he's a lion he can withstand
[17:10] anyone else's direct coercive force
[17:12] because he's a military man machiavelli
[17:14] likes blood and gore he's a very
[17:16] military kind of fellow he really likes
[17:17] military solutions but in addition to
[17:19] that
[17:20] being a being a lion is not enough in
[17:22] addition to that it's also necessary to
[17:24] be a fox what we mean by being a fox is
[17:26] that one must be clever
[17:28] sly cunning deceitful and when you're
[17:32] powerful and at the same time deceitful
[17:34] when you can confuse them when you can
[17:37] confuse your opponents and defeat them
[17:38] in a practical coercive sense then you
[17:40] are the man of realver2 this is the kind
[17:42] of guy that's going to go straight to
[17:44] the top he's going to climb a pile of
[17:46] corpses on his way there but then again
[17:48] he has no moral compunctions about it
[17:50] there is no god to judge him there is no
[17:53] metaphysical standard by which to judge
[17:54] this he either succeeds or he doesn't
[17:56] it's a sort of nihilistic approach to
[17:59] politics in which the gratification of
[18:00] the individual ego is raised the status
[18:02] of a principle
[18:04] in some respects this is why the
[18:06] renaissance and particularly the the
[18:08] human-centered political science that's
[18:10] characteristic of the renaissance which
[18:12] is a big change from that of the middle
[18:14] ages is such a turning of the corner in
[18:16] the western political tradition we're
[18:18] moving away from god-centered politics
[18:20] toward man-centered politics and
[18:22] man-centered politics is ugly
[18:24] man-centered politics is bloody and
[18:26] man-centered politics serves no ends
[18:29] but human ends and human desires there
[18:31] is no
[18:33] ultimate
[18:34] summum bonum
[18:36] no ultimate good that politics gestures
[18:39] at
[18:41] machiavelli gives a very fine example of
[18:43] a of an action which he considers to
[18:45] have great political wisdom in it i
[18:47] think you'll like this
[18:48] there was a ruler
[18:50] who
[18:51] attacked and conquered another
[18:52] city-state
[18:53] but there's still a great deal of
[18:55] banditry a good bit of outlawy uh
[18:58] political chaos in the countryside
[19:01] so this ruler and machiavelli thinks
[19:03] this rule is a very wise fellow
[19:05] he sends his second in command his
[19:06] lieutenant to that city and he says i
[19:08] give you complete power of life and
[19:10] death over all the citizens of that city
[19:11] because now they're mine
[19:14] and i want you to go down there and lay
[19:15] down the law i want you to ruthlessly
[19:17] exterminate all of my enemies i want you
[19:20] to to make the decrees i think
[19:22] appropriate and whatever degrees you
[19:23] think are appropriate make them all and
[19:25] lean on these people
[19:27] go in and coerce them intimidate them
[19:29] frighten them
[19:31] until they
[19:32] concede that
[19:33] i am the legitimate ruler here and that
[19:35] you rule in my name and i give you
[19:37] complete power if any of them complain
[19:38] about you tell them i've given delegated
[19:40] my authority to you and if they give you
[19:43] any more problems beyond that kill them
[19:45] now that's only half of the story
[19:47] there's more to it
[19:48] after doing that the prince lets this
[19:51] guy do it for a couple of months three
[19:52] four five months and this very cruel
[19:55] very bloodthirsty very ruthless second
[19:57] in command
[19:58] dominates the people lots of mass
[20:00] executions
[20:02] cruel tortures
[20:03] horrible bloody spectacles which
[20:05] frighten the people there out of their
[20:06] wits
[20:08] now here's a problem this is part of
[20:10] machiavellianism fear is a good thing
[20:12] you can count on people's fear and this
[20:14] guy's made him plenty afraid but we have
[20:16] a problem here the potential for hatred
[20:18] certainly if you've killed someone's
[20:20] father mother son daughter husband wife
[20:23] it's going to be payback time
[20:25] machiavelli has no conception of
[20:27] forgiveness no idea that charity ought
[20:30] to be extended to us sinners he thinks
[20:32] that's for children and old ladies no
[20:34] machiavelli says the right way to handle
[20:36] this is the way the prince in this case
[20:38] handled it he went to that second city
[20:41] and he asked the people in that city
[20:43] what do you think of my new ruler here
[20:44] is he a nice fellow a real charmer isn't
[20:46] he and it turns out
[20:48] that
[20:49] the people were
[20:50] horrified by the terrible cruelties the
[20:53] tortures and the murders the public
[20:54] executions that he had imposed on them
[20:57] so secretly that night
[20:59] the prince was sitting back there
[21:00] thinking about this and he orders his
[21:03] secret police or his private guardsmen
[21:05] the ones he can really trust whoever
[21:07] they are
[21:08] it tells them i want you secretly to go
[21:10] to the room of my second in command the
[21:12] man i gave this bloody authority to
[21:15] and i want you to take him out to the
[21:16] center of the square of this town and i
[21:18] want you to cut him in half and leave
[21:20] him there
[21:21] next morning the people of the town get
[21:23] up
[21:24] and what do they see but a man who is
[21:26] the object of intense hatred to them
[21:29] pieces of him all over the center of the
[21:31] square
[21:33] and then our prince sets out a decree
[21:35] that he had heard
[21:37] through some source which he isn't going
[21:39] to name that this man had been very
[21:41] severe and very violent and we can't
[21:43] have any of that in a well-run state he
[21:45] had heard that this man had usurped
[21:47] power that the prince had never given
[21:49] him and because the second command had
[21:51] been so bloody-minded and such an evil
[21:52] cruel fellow the prince's justice the
[21:54] prince's mercy and the person's prince's
[21:56] honesty required that he'd be cut in
[21:58] half
[22:00] the art of the double cross you send a
[22:02] guy out to do the dirty work you cut his
[22:04] throat you throw them to the wolves you
[22:06] give them to the people that are left
[22:07] over and then you clean up the gravy at
[22:09] the end of it this is machiavelli's
[22:11] conception of good politics he specifies
[22:13] that particular example as an example of
[22:16] a man who really knows his way around
[22:18] political stuff first you'll first you
[22:20] conquer people that you have no right to
[22:22] and then you send somebody out there to
[22:23] do extremely evil and unpleasant and
[22:26] violent things to them
[22:28] and you lie to him and say that
[22:29] you do it with my blessing
[22:31] and then you go to the people and you
[22:32] act like you're blameless so they won't
[22:33] hate you
[22:34] and then you kill this guy throw him to
[22:36] the wolves and the people lap it up and
[22:37] say what a nice failure i'm glad we got
[22:39] a prince like you
[22:40] much better than the guy we had here we
[22:42] thought he was acting with your
[22:43] authority but of course now we see that
[22:44] he wasn't
[22:45] that's what the word machiavellian means
[22:48] two three four levels of meaning
[22:51] all devoted to the same task
[22:53] to the organization and acquire
[22:56] acquisition of political power
[22:58] by any means necessary
[23:00] this man is not careful about the means
[23:03] that he uses to achieve his ends
[23:07] so machiavelli writes his prince
[23:09] 90 pages in order that a practical
[23:11] politician can have this around for
[23:13] inspiration and isn't it inspirational
[23:15] reading those of you who have looked at
[23:16] it before will find that like it or not
[23:19] it is in some respects inspirational
[23:21] reading simply because of the
[23:23] single-mindedness the ruthless pursuit
[23:26] of practical political power as a
[23:28] handbook for doing that
[23:30] i think it has never been excelled
[23:33] the difficulty of course with this is as
[23:35] i said a little earlier it prevents
[23:37] human beings from being social animals
[23:39] stop and think about it for a minute
[23:41] suppose you're a member of the medici
[23:42] family
[23:43] and suppose this guy machiavelli writes
[23:46] the prince and dedicates it to you and
[23:48] tells you to beware of flatterers and
[23:50] beware of people that are trying to get
[23:51] in good with you because you can never
[23:53] trust them they may stab you in the back
[23:55] suppose you were a political ruler and
[23:56] he wrote it to you would you hire him to
[23:58] work for you
[23:59] what would happen if you had him on your
[24:01] staff where's where your staff is going
[24:02] to start disappearing
[24:04] right unforeseen accidents they're all
[24:06] going to start as he moves up the ladder
[24:07] of command
[24:09] bad things happen to good people all
[24:11] kinds of stuff could happen here and
[24:12] then it may well be
[24:14] that some horrible misfortune may occur
[24:17] while you're out riding while you happen
[24:19] to be asleep well you happen to have
[24:20] your back turned in other words
[24:22] he is here so he can usurp your position
[24:25] why oh why if you had any brains at all
[24:27] would you choose to have him on your
[24:29] staff there is no man who is less
[24:32] appropriate to the staff of a politician
[24:35] than machiavelli and yet in some
[24:37] respects
[24:38] there is a lure he does show you a
[24:41] horrible worldly wisdom
[24:43] which maybe you want on your own side
[24:45] rather than on your other rather than on
[24:47] your opponent's side but if he's on your
[24:49] side
[24:50] well i guess he really can't be on your
[24:51] side i guess he's always on his own side
[24:54] which is part of the problem machiavelli
[24:55] is not a team player
[24:57] if you were a ruler you would never in
[24:59] your right mind have to keep work for
[25:00] you
[25:01] turn it around suppose
[25:03] a ruler is foolish enough to bring a
[25:05] machiavellian in the machiavellian kills
[25:07] him makes it look like someone else did
[25:09] it he takes over the throne
[25:11] a person would have to be crazy to work
[25:14] for machiavelli as opposed to have him
[25:16] in
[25:17] in addition to having him work for you
[25:18] in other words suppose he were to become
[25:20] the prince of the king what's he going
[25:22] to do with you when you become his
[25:23] number two or number three or number
[25:24] four man you are expendable everyone is
[25:27] expendable to the machiavellian you have
[25:29] no intrinsic value except as a vehicle
[25:32] by which he can satisfy his desires by
[25:35] which he can gratify his lust for power
[25:37] so the machiavellian soul is the
[25:39] tyrannical soul in some respects when
[25:41] you go back and look at plato's republic
[25:43] almost all the great themes in western
[25:45] political philosophy are to be found
[25:46] there machiavelli is nothing really new
[25:50] machiavelli is a codification
[25:52] not quite a systematization but a
[25:54] handbook for the would-be tyrant he's a
[25:57] handbook of it's a handbook of sophistry
[26:01] right because he says one thing it means
[26:02] another and in fact the meaning of his
[26:04] statements doesn't matter so long as it
[26:05] gets the practical result of achieving
[26:07] political power and it's an entirely
[26:09] this worldly orientation
[26:11] if we had to look at the ancient
[26:12] political tradition
[26:14] both platonism and christianity
[26:18] organized the political theory with
[26:20] reference to the will of some
[26:22] giant metaphysical law giver in the case
[26:25] of plato it's the form of the good in
[26:27] the case of christianity it's god's
[26:29] omnipotence
[26:30] but in either case the key issue is
[26:34] making our behavior and our souls and
[26:37] our lives consistent with the
[26:38] obligations imposed by this thing in the
[26:41] metaphysical realm
[26:42] once we abolish the metaphysical realm
[26:45] there is no law or ultimate standard by
[26:47] which to judge our actions and by which
[26:48] to judge our good and evil and that
[26:50] means there's only the satisfaction of
[26:52] desires down here and this leads
[26:54] straight to the softest political
[26:55] position that political power is an end
[26:57] in itself that the satisfaction of
[26:59] people's desires has an end in
[27:00] themselves and the real true state of
[27:03] human felicity is having profound
[27:06] vehement extraordinarily
[27:09] forceful emotions passions and then
[27:11] satisfying them and the continuous
[27:13] satisfaction of vehement passions is
[27:16] what machiavelli and the sophists and
[27:18] all of this cynical political tradition
[27:21] cynical not in the literal sense but in
[27:23] the broad general sense this cynical
[27:25] political tradition
[27:27] enjoins us too
[27:28] so all of you who are would-be rulers
[27:31] this is the book for you the difficulty
[27:33] is is that it tells us all
[27:35] or perhaps not all of us but all of us
[27:36] who have the nerve
[27:38] not to succumb to metaphysics
[27:41] who are willing to break free of the
[27:43] mold of mere morality it tells us how to
[27:46] become
[27:47] chiefs and no longer indians and of
[27:49] course if we were all to follow that
[27:50] there'd be all chiefs and no indians but
[27:52] machiavelli is under no illusions
[27:54] about everybody having the capacity to
[27:57] do this it's only the extraordinary
[27:58] individual like himself or like caesar
[28:01] borgia or like a handful of the other
[28:03] great tyrants in history that have
[28:05] really shown us what human beings are
[28:06] capable of
[28:07] in some respect
[28:09] machiavelli is similar to plato in that
[28:11] both plato and machiavelli are trying to
[28:13] show us something buried deep in the
[28:16] marrow of the human soul at the very
[28:18] center of it
[28:19] plato thinks there's an eternal goodness
[28:22] a final
[28:23] spark of the divine soul which allows us
[28:26] to get some access to the mind of god
[28:29] and to the understanding of ultimate
[28:30] truth and wisdom
[28:32] machiavelli believes that at the core of
[28:35] the human soul
[28:36] in the marrow of the psyche
[28:39] there is a beast
[28:41] an untamed animal which wants only the
[28:44] satisfaction of its desires
[28:46] in some respects this is a very
[28:48] prescient theory because it anticipates
[28:50] many of the views that will later be
[28:52] held by sigmund freud
[28:54] underneath our superego underneath this
[28:58] veil of civility
[29:00] this
[29:01] veneer of righteousness in fact we are
[29:03] animals exclusively concerned with the
[29:05] satisfaction of our physical desires
[29:08] we are beasts
[29:10] with a very very thin shell of rational
[29:14] morality
[29:16] machiavelli suggests that we should
[29:18] become on the outside what we are on the
[29:21] inside except in such cases when it's
[29:23] inconvenient if it's convenient to look
[29:25] pious gentle kind and good well that's
[29:29] just fine the important thing is not to
[29:30] be gentle kind and good the important
[29:32] thing is to be ruthless and rapacious
[29:35] and treacherous
[29:38] if you are familiar with the play king
[29:40] lear
[29:41] the edmond and edgar characters
[29:43] particularly the uh the bastard son i
[29:45] think it's edmund
[29:47] gives a wonderful speech in which he
[29:48] talks about legitimacy in which he talks
[29:50] about the order of political right and
[29:54] the circumstances of inheritance and
[29:57] social status
[29:58] and
[29:59] when he says in the beginning of that
[30:01] soliloquy thou nature art my goddess and
[30:03] to thy law my services are bound
[30:06] that prayer was about the only prayer
[30:08] that machiavelli could say with a
[30:09] straight face nature red and fang and
[30:12] claw is
[30:13] the goddess to whom his services are
[30:15] bound
[30:17] nature which is
[30:20] the fundamental reality we are human
[30:23] physical things that's remember where
[30:25] that's where the word nature comes from
[30:26] from the greek word phusis
[30:28] right so we are physical beings we are
[30:31] not spirits in a material world we are
[30:33] rapacious bits of meat that do whatever
[30:35] we can to take advantage of each other
[30:37] except when we're deluding ourselves
[30:39] with things like morals religion
[30:41] kindness gentleness milk of human virtue
[30:44] that sort of thing but apart from
[30:45] delusions like that and silly poetry
[30:47] appropriate for the feeble the weak the
[30:50] christians
[30:52] in life there's only
[30:54] blood
[30:55] gore
[30:56] power
[30:57] the intoxication of not only surviving
[30:59] but conquering
[31:01] we might say that machiavelli's
[31:02] conception of virtue harks back not to
[31:05] the socratic conception of virtue but to
[31:08] the conception of virtue characteristic
[31:09] of homer in the iliad in the odyssey
[31:11] it's the lying treacherous virtue of
[31:13] odysseus
[31:15] it's the powerful lion-like virtues of
[31:18] achilles
[31:19] if you are a good warrior able to coerce
[31:22] other people able to impose your will
[31:25] on
[31:26] a universe that is both indifferent to
[31:27] you and indifferent to
[31:29] any moral structure you might create
[31:32] then and only then are you a man worth
[31:34] taking seriously he enjoins us to create
[31:37] to go back to the earlier pre-socratic
[31:40] pre-christian virtues we hear the drums
[31:43] of a primitive heroism in this book it
[31:47] is a blast from the past and at the same
[31:49] time it is one of the most modern of
[31:51] political works
[31:53] if we take for granted and i think it a
[31:55] fair assumption that at this point in
[31:56] time we live in a secular age we live in
[31:59] an age which is contemptuous of
[32:01] metaphysics which is contemptuous of
[32:03] references to abstract morality then in
[32:06] some respects we live in a machiavellian
[32:08] universe
[32:09] even if we have some sort of ativistic
[32:12] connection back to an earlier morality
[32:14] that meant something more than personal
[32:16] self-gratification
[32:18] in that respect machiavelli is a very
[32:20] modern political thinker he is the first
[32:22] political thinker to break from that
[32:24] metaphysical tradition towards a
[32:26] completely physical tradition to move
[32:28] from a sacred politics to a profane
[32:31] politics
[32:33] or you might say that he undoes the
[32:35] distinction between the sacred and
[32:36] profane by abolishing the sacred so the
[32:39] world around us is neither sacred nor
[32:41] profane it just is what it is
[32:44] and you are what you are and what you
[32:46] are in fact
[32:47] is a wolf guarding the sheep if you
[32:49] remember the analogy that thrasymachus
[32:52] makes in the first book of the republic
[32:54] that the ruler relates to the citizens
[32:56] that he that are his subjects the way a
[32:58] shepherd relates to a sheep or to a
[33:00] flock of sheep he keeps them there not
[33:02] because he likes the sheep not because
[33:04] he has any moral obligation to the sheep
[33:06] but because he likes pork he likes lamb
[33:07] chops he likes to turn these things into
[33:10] his sustenance well other people the
[33:12] subjects in the machiavellian state will
[33:14] exist only in order to satisfy the
[33:16] physical carnal carnals are well chosen
[33:19] where they're carnal desires of the
[33:21] machiavellian prince achilles might have
[33:24] liked machiavelli if he had understood
[33:26] what was being said
[33:28] odysseus i think certainly would have
[33:29] liked machiavelli because he brings
[33:31] together both the lion and the fox i
[33:33] would say not so much achilles because
[33:35] achilles is a little on the dumb side
[33:37] but odysseus as the perfect
[33:39] machiavellian hero brings together the
[33:41] willingness to lie the willingness to
[33:43] violate oaths the willingness to break
[33:45] whatever social conventions are around
[33:47] you in order to achieve your ends
[33:50] the centered focused fierce desire to
[33:55] satisfy your innermost longings in some
[33:58] respects machiavelli is what people
[34:00] would be like in the freudian sense if
[34:02] you took away the superego altogether or
[34:04] if you only kept the superego the
[34:06] conception of righteousness of moral
[34:08] virtue as a veneer to protect you from
[34:11] other people's
[34:12] condemnation
[34:14] but what we are down deep
[34:16] is a mass of desires that we neither
[34:19] choose nor control
[34:21] and human felicity simply exists in the
[34:24] satisfaction of these desires
[34:26] oxen are happy when you give them straw
[34:28] machiavelli is happy when you give them
[34:29] a government fundamentally there is no
[34:31] difference
[34:32] each animal gravitates towards its own
[34:34] appropriate object
[34:36] machiavelli
[34:37] in that respect is the is an ancient
[34:40] political theorist at the same same time
[34:41] a modern political theorist
[34:43] he represents nothing new in politics
[34:45] but rather an ever-present temptation
[34:49] it is always tempting
[34:51] for human beings to take the easy way
[34:53] out and decide that they're going to be
[34:55] meat that they're going to give up
[34:57] the attempt
[34:59] to kindle the divine spark which is what
[35:01] marcus aurelius called the soul
[35:04] called the disposition to moral virtue
[35:06] machiavelli doesn't want to climb
[35:09] what plato called the ladder of
[35:11] beauty in the symposium
[35:14] because he finds the world ugly
[35:18] violent
[35:19] and evil
[35:20] and he likes it
[35:22] so in other words not only does he know
[35:24] that he's in the cave but he thinks that
[35:26] any attempt to move out of the
[35:28] cave is a kind of letting down of nature
[35:32] it's an attempt to move away from nature
[35:34] towards
[35:35] some sort of shemerical poetic i know
[35:37] not what and machiavelli is the saint is
[35:40] a patron saint of all politicians who
[35:43] would be exclusively and immorally
[35:45] practical
[35:47] one of the great
[35:48] difficulties in evaluating machiavelli
[35:51] is to give him his due in other words to
[35:53] be intellectually fair fair to him
[35:54] because he is a great genius there's no
[35:56] way that we can honestly take that away
[35:58] from him
[35:59] but it's also a mistake to say that
[36:02] while he's a great genius
[36:05] we can in practice use this as a guide
[36:08] to life
[36:09] if people were to take this seriously
[36:10] and although god help us some of us do
[36:13] it would be a disaster for the social
[36:15] structure and it would be disaster for
[36:16] politics
[36:17] the difficulty is is that we seem to
[36:19] vacillate between one and the other when
[36:21] the better angels of our natures take
[36:23] over we can see how marcus aurelius is a
[36:25] fine politician and how plato offers us
[36:27] something real solid substantial in
[36:30] organizing our emotions organizing our
[36:32] lives organizing our standards of
[36:34] judgment the problem is that we tend to
[36:35] vacillate back and forth every once in a
[36:38] while when we think nobody's looking we
[36:40] have a sneaking suspicion that
[36:42] machiavelli may be right
[36:44] let him who is out who is without sin
[36:46] cast the first stone i think every one
[36:48] of us has done stuff that we knew was
[36:50] wrong at one time or another machiavelli
[36:52] is saying i wish to liberate you from
[36:54] the guilt of thinking that that is a
[36:56] mistake your mistake is in not doing
[36:58] that all the time
[37:00] do not succumb to the temptation
[37:02] to be an angel you have no chance of
[37:04] doing that you are meat
[37:06] you are meet with a rational soul but
[37:08] your rational soul is nothing that glows
[37:10] in the dark it's nothing metaphysical
[37:12] it's just the rational part of you that
[37:13] allows you to decide
[37:15] how to best satisfy your irrationally
[37:17] developed desires
[37:19] so machiavelli is a kind of standing
[37:21] temptation
[37:23] he is a great political genius and we
[37:25] must give the devil his due almost
[37:27] literally speaking
[37:29] but at the same time we have to
[37:30] understand the limitations of this
[37:32] limitation number one is it prevents us
[37:34] from being what we really are which is
[37:35] social animals
[37:37] a machiavellian would be unfit and
[37:39] subordinate and would be unfit as a
[37:40] superior nobody in his right mind would
[37:42] work for machiavelli or have machiavelli
[37:43] work form
[37:45] number two
[37:48] it is a denigration in some respects of
[37:51] human nature
[37:53] it is a cynical analysis of what people
[37:56] have done in worst case circumstances
[37:59] it is almost an entirely hopeless
[38:01] philosophy
[38:02] by rejecting the christian virtues of
[38:04] faith hope and charity well
[38:07] i suppose we might get by without
[38:08] charity i suppose in this case we might
[38:10] get by without faith but the problem
[38:12] with this philosophy that i think even
[38:13] bothers those who
[38:15] acknowledge its brilliance is that it is
[38:16] entirely hopeless philosophy what can we
[38:19] expect from the next government the same
[38:21] thing we can expect from this government
[38:22] which is that it will be rapacious that
[38:24] it will be treacherous that it will be
[38:25] evil and that it will be
[38:27] powerful and that it will dominate us
[38:30] the only way out of that merry-go-round
[38:31] is to dominate everyone else
[38:33] nature red in fang and claw enjoins us
[38:38] to make a meal of our own
[38:40] and joins us to become the wolf among
[38:41] the sheep
[38:43] and if we have
[38:44] both the inclination and the
[38:46] unwillingness to philosophize in the
[38:48] platonic
[38:49] sense then it seems to me that the only
[38:52] logical conclusion is the one that
[38:53] machiavelli draws
[38:55] so if you wish to go for the strictly
[38:58] physical strictly anti-metaphysical
[39:00] politics we're going to have a hard time
[39:02] connecting politics and ethics
[39:05] one of the great achievements of plato's
[39:06] republic is that politics turns out to
[39:09] be ethics writ large that what is good
[39:11] for the soul of the individual man the
[39:13] organization of the reasoning the
[39:14] spirited and the desiring parts it also
[39:17] turns out to be isomorphically good for
[39:19] the society because we will organize the
[39:22] rulers the rational folks at the top of
[39:24] society who will have the guardians
[39:26] their auxiliaries the spirited part and
[39:27] we'll have the bronze people at the
[39:28] bottom getting as many of their desires
[39:30] satisfied as possible for plato there's
[39:32] a one-to-one connection between politics
[39:34] and ethics
[39:36] that will be true of all the
[39:37] metaphysical thinkers also be true of
[39:39] the christians
[39:40] on the other hand
[39:42] if one wishes to adopt the single world
[39:45] entirely physicalistic interpretation of
[39:47] human life and of ontology and of
[39:49] politics of necessity there will be a
[39:52] disjunction between politics and ethics
[39:54] we will hear this again when we deal
[39:56] with david hume's theory of justice
[39:59] so if you wish
[40:00] politics to be moral
[40:02] if you complain that politicians take
[40:05] too many bribes and cut too many corners
[40:08] and are unwilling to do what they ought
[40:11] to do and meet their moral obligations
[40:13] you are implicitly making an argument
[40:15] which is founded on some sort of
[40:17] metaphysical conception no matter how in
[40:19] koat
[40:20] you might as well fess up to it now
[40:22] you're all metaphysical believers
[40:24] if you don't wish to be a metaphysical
[40:26] believer that's another possibility be
[40:28] careful you don't move down the slippery
[40:30] slope to machiavellianism because we
[40:33] move from the state of society to the
[40:34] state of nature and the nature that
[40:36] machiavelli has destined for us will be
[40:39] worse than any hell because it will be
[40:41] immediate and tangible and there's no
[40:43] way around it it's a necessary element
[40:45] in the human condition
[40:47] machiavelli offers us
[40:49] a secular substitute for salvation
[40:53] machiavelli offers us a chance
[40:56] for this worldly gratification
[40:58] and since there's no other world for us
[41:00] to go to no final judgment of god no
[41:03] ultimate moral order this is the best
[41:06] that the human species can attain
[41:09] the homeric virtues the military virtues
[41:12] the treacherous political virtues
[41:15] those elements of
[41:17] roman history which are the most
[41:18] disgraceful
[41:20] and the most appalling machiavelli
[41:22] wishes to raises those to the status of
[41:25] universal human
[41:27] felicity
[41:28] and unusual well perhaps not an unusual
[41:31] unnecessary but lamentable temptation
[41:35] and insofar as we wish to avoid that
[41:38] we must go back and think about the idea
[41:40] of
[41:41] politics and ethics
[41:44] the implications that it holds for
[41:45] ontology because it implies metaphysics
[41:48] the implications that metaphysics have
[41:50] for our conception of the rest of
[41:52] philosophy and the way in which
[41:54] knowledge holds ethics virtue
[41:57] and
[41:58] human
[41:59] experience together the way it connects
[42:02] our conception of the individual soul
[42:04] and political
[42:06] order
[42:07] and the way
[42:09] in which our own lives would be
[42:10] influenced by a decision to either
[42:13] succumb to the lure of this world
[42:16] or to take the chance
[42:18] that another better one awaits us
[42:21] it is not a decidable proposition
[42:24] machiavelli wishes to offer us one
[42:26] possible solution to the set of
[42:28] intellectual difficulties
[42:49] you