What do you think?
Rate this book
The Prince and The Discourses
This volume includes the complete translated texts of both The Prince and the Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius [Livy], along with a historical and critical Introduction by Max Lerner.
"Nothing could be more timely than the publication at this moment of history of the two works which made Machiavelli both famous and infamous as a model for contemporary statesmen. The Prince and The Discourses have become required reading for an understanding of our daily newspaper headlines.
"These books have never before been printed in a single volume. The texts are complete and unabridged. An illuminating introduction is provided by Max Lerner who traces the career and thought of the first analyst of power and the uses to which political domination can be put for aggression and the expanding control of the state."
-- from the jacket of the 1950 edition
"Nothing could be more timely than the publication at this moment of history of the two works which made Machiavelli both famous and infamous as a model for contemporary statesmen. The Prince and The Discourses have become required reading for an understanding of our daily newspaper headlines.
"These books have never before been printed in a single volume. The texts are complete and unabridged. An illuminating introduction is provided by Max Lerner who traces the career and thought of the first analyst of power and the uses to which political domination can be put for aggression and the expanding control of the state."
-- from the jacket of the 1950 edition
540 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1531
42 people are currently reading
1270 people want to read
About the author
Niccolò Machiavelli
2,139 books4,971 followers
The Prince
, book of Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian political theorist, in
1513 describes an indifferent ruler to moral considerations with determination to achieve and to maintain power.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, a philosopher, musician, and poet, wrote plays. He figured centrally in component of the Renaissance, and people most widely know his realist treatises on the one hand and republicanism of Discourses on Livy .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%...
1513 describes an indifferent ruler to moral considerations with determination to achieve and to maintain power.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, a philosopher, musician, and poet, wrote plays. He figured centrally in component of the Renaissance, and people most widely know his realist treatises on the one hand and republicanism of Discourses on Livy .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
November 13, 2022
Re-reading under our would-be prince president, Tacitus got him exactly right: "It's easier to revenge an injury than to repay a benefit, because gratitude weighs like a burden, while vengeance results in profit."(p.198, n1)
Machiavelli says Sparta lasted 800 years, whereas the republic of Athens, barely a century. But the Athenians fought fiercely for their liberty, because even a good prince does not improve the common good. Even if a good prince arises ("un tiranno virtuoso"), who grows his dominion, nothing results for the public, but for himself alone (280).
On the other hand, it is marvelous to consider how Rome grew as a republic, the reason being simple: "perché non il bene particulare ma il bene comune è quello che fa grandi le città," because it was not solitary ownership but profit in common that makes cities great (280).
Other exact parallels with our US tyrant, on how corruption can be maintained, Discorsi Book I, Ch XVIII. "Because it's not people with more ethics (virtu) but those with more power who ask appointment to public office, magistrates, while the ethical and powerless do not ask, for fear"(180).
As for Il Principe, see the most famous chapter, Ch XVII, On pity and fear, "an sit melius amari quam timeri," whether it is better for a leader to be loved or feared. He answers, best to be both, but if you can only be one, "è molto piú sicuro essere temuto che amato," better feared than loved, because men are ungrateful, complaining, simulators, fleeing from danger, desiring money, and while you do them good, they are yours, but if you fall off a bit, they revolt. But lay off their property, for "l'uomini sdimenticano piú presto la morte del padre che la perdita del patrimonio," men forget more quickly the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony (70).
By the way, no academic freedom back then, as Machiavelli was imprisioned after 7 Dec 1512 a couple months after Medici partisans occupied the Palazzo and ended the Republic of Florence. Like Athens, the Florentine Republic lasted less than a century. Machiavelli was suspected of participating in the Boscoli conspiracy, and imprisoned in February and March 1513, where he was tortured. Released with the election of Cardinal de Medici as Pope. (No academic freedom outside of the Catholics, either, in the 1570's, when Giordano Bruno was jailed by the Calvinists in Geneva for publishing a critique of a professor's talk. Religious equal-opportunity.)
Machiavelli also wrote comedies, the most famous, La Mandragola, The Mandrake, which features the usual in Italy, an old man (Nicia) married to a young beauty (Lucrezia). The old man wants an heir, so the young man Callimaco masquerades as a physician, convinces Nicia to have his wife take Mandrake, but warns that it'll kill the first man who sleeps with her. The corrupt priest Fra Timoteo convinces reluctant Lucrezia to sleep with Callimaco. A rascally marriage broker, Ligurio conspires with the priest and Callimaco.
[I hope to find my notes, on 4"x6" notecards.]
*Bought this in Italian, Feltrinelli, after a Tony Molho lecture while in his NEH post-doc seminar at Brown U, 13x79. Others in that seminar included a future president of Trinity College, Hartford, and Art Professor Chuck Rosenberg at Notre Dame, not to mention Mary Gibson of John Jay College and the Univerista di Bologna--her book on prostitution has been translated into many languages, and her book on Cesare Lombroso's Criminal Man I have reviewed on GdRds. Her translation of Lombroso is on my shelves.
Machiavelli says Sparta lasted 800 years, whereas the republic of Athens, barely a century. But the Athenians fought fiercely for their liberty, because even a good prince does not improve the common good. Even if a good prince arises ("un tiranno virtuoso"), who grows his dominion, nothing results for the public, but for himself alone (280).
On the other hand, it is marvelous to consider how Rome grew as a republic, the reason being simple: "perché non il bene particulare ma il bene comune è quello che fa grandi le città," because it was not solitary ownership but profit in common that makes cities great (280).
Other exact parallels with our US tyrant, on how corruption can be maintained, Discorsi Book I, Ch XVIII. "Because it's not people with more ethics (virtu) but those with more power who ask appointment to public office, magistrates, while the ethical and powerless do not ask, for fear"(180).
As for Il Principe, see the most famous chapter, Ch XVII, On pity and fear, "an sit melius amari quam timeri," whether it is better for a leader to be loved or feared. He answers, best to be both, but if you can only be one, "è molto piú sicuro essere temuto che amato," better feared than loved, because men are ungrateful, complaining, simulators, fleeing from danger, desiring money, and while you do them good, they are yours, but if you fall off a bit, they revolt. But lay off their property, for "l'uomini sdimenticano piú presto la morte del padre che la perdita del patrimonio," men forget more quickly the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony (70).
By the way, no academic freedom back then, as Machiavelli was imprisioned after 7 Dec 1512 a couple months after Medici partisans occupied the Palazzo and ended the Republic of Florence. Like Athens, the Florentine Republic lasted less than a century. Machiavelli was suspected of participating in the Boscoli conspiracy, and imprisoned in February and March 1513, where he was tortured. Released with the election of Cardinal de Medici as Pope. (No academic freedom outside of the Catholics, either, in the 1570's, when Giordano Bruno was jailed by the Calvinists in Geneva for publishing a critique of a professor's talk. Religious equal-opportunity.)
Machiavelli also wrote comedies, the most famous, La Mandragola, The Mandrake, which features the usual in Italy, an old man (Nicia) married to a young beauty (Lucrezia). The old man wants an heir, so the young man Callimaco masquerades as a physician, convinces Nicia to have his wife take Mandrake, but warns that it'll kill the first man who sleeps with her. The corrupt priest Fra Timoteo convinces reluctant Lucrezia to sleep with Callimaco. A rascally marriage broker, Ligurio conspires with the priest and Callimaco.
[I hope to find my notes, on 4"x6" notecards.]
*Bought this in Italian, Feltrinelli, after a Tony Molho lecture while in his NEH post-doc seminar at Brown U, 13x79. Others in that seminar included a future president of Trinity College, Hartford, and Art Professor Chuck Rosenberg at Notre Dame, not to mention Mary Gibson of John Jay College and the Univerista di Bologna--her book on prostitution has been translated into many languages, and her book on Cesare Lombroso's Criminal Man I have reviewed on GdRds. Her translation of Lombroso is on my shelves.
January 2, 2015
During the summer of 1967 our neighbor in Berrien County, Michigan, Harriet Brooks, a kind old lady who would always give us kids malts when we'd drop by her house on the lakefront, had her god-daughter, Nancy Pualani Fowler, in from Honolulu, Hawaii. Pua was a class behind me, but much more socially adept. Enraptured, I'd spend the days on the beach with her and the other kids from up and down the coast, saying nothing, reading.
One of the books I read during this torturous season was The Prince with The Discourses. It was quite the contrast, being ugly to the extreme, contradicting all of the political and social ideals I had been brought up to believe in and which I still wanted to think our own government basically maintained. The edifice was collapsing all about me as this was also the period that I started reading Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape.
Still, reality notwithstanding, the accident of Pua subsequently contracting mononucleosis and having to spend the rest of the summer in quarantine at Harriet's led to our talking (through a screen window with her one floor up from me) daily for hours and hours. I got to know her, fell in love with her, thought she felt similarly, and, then, poof, she was gone back to the islands, remaining only as a picture in my wallet. Still, reality notwithstanding, I believed Machievelli had little correspondence to current political practice.
Those beliefs were not to last for long . . .
One of the books I read during this torturous season was The Prince with The Discourses. It was quite the contrast, being ugly to the extreme, contradicting all of the political and social ideals I had been brought up to believe in and which I still wanted to think our own government basically maintained. The edifice was collapsing all about me as this was also the period that I started reading Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape.
Still, reality notwithstanding, the accident of Pua subsequently contracting mononucleosis and having to spend the rest of the summer in quarantine at Harriet's led to our talking (through a screen window with her one floor up from me) daily for hours and hours. I got to know her, fell in love with her, thought she felt similarly, and, then, poof, she was gone back to the islands, remaining only as a picture in my wallet. Still, reality notwithstanding, I believed Machievelli had little correspondence to current political practice.
Those beliefs were not to last for long . . .
May 8, 2012
Discourses, unlike the Prince, was not written to gain any favors. Machiavelli talks more freely in this book. He makes it clear that he thinks a republic is the best form of government, provided that it follows the stellar example of the Roman republic. The book's focus is primarily on the Roman republic and the causes of its longevity.
He discusses the system of checks and balances in Rome and enumerates the causes of their success. Of course, some discussions are very vague and general such as his insistence on corruption (not necessarily in the new sense of the word) being the ultimate intrinsic evil that is almost not curable by any measures. Apart for some allowable nonsense ( after all this is a 16th century book) it is very interesting and in a pragmatic way progressive and humanistic.
Machiavelli clearly sees religion as an artifice, made to keep people in check and as such supports religion. On the other hand, in the discourses, he criticizes the papacy for corrupting the religion, and even mildly criticizes Christianity itself for emphasizing too much on the after life, and by doing so cowing people and stymieing freedoms and republics. That was probably the main cause for the book to be placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
He discusses the system of checks and balances in Rome and enumerates the causes of their success. Of course, some discussions are very vague and general such as his insistence on corruption (not necessarily in the new sense of the word) being the ultimate intrinsic evil that is almost not curable by any measures. Apart for some allowable nonsense ( after all this is a 16th century book) it is very interesting and in a pragmatic way progressive and humanistic.
Machiavelli clearly sees religion as an artifice, made to keep people in check and as such supports religion. On the other hand, in the discourses, he criticizes the papacy for corrupting the religion, and even mildly criticizes Christianity itself for emphasizing too much on the after life, and by doing so cowing people and stymieing freedoms and republics. That was probably the main cause for the book to be placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
October 16, 2025
Finished The Prince on October 6. Gonna reread at work so my bosses know I'm gunning for their jobs.
March 25, 2021
Con Machiavelli ho da sempre un rapporto speciale, come se mi ammiccasse attraverso i secoli e fosse quasi un mio amico. Mi succede ogni tanto e con lui è sempre così, ogni volta che lo rileggo. I suoi scritti politici, sapienti ma anche ironici, ricchi di esempi e contraddizioni, sono per me (e non solo) un gioiello della letteratura. Non so come altro spiegarlo, ma Machiavelli deve essere stato davvero un bel tipo, ci sarei andata d'accordo.
January 6, 2015
In order to gain a complete understand of Machiavelli, one must have a critical eye of his work. One must treat his writing in a similar manner that he treated history. This edition of his work allows a student of history or political philosophy and theory to gain a complete understanding for what Machiavelli is truly arguing. I highly recommend both of these work in completion before a person passes judgment about this philosopher - simply reading The Prince will give you an incomplete view of the man, the argument, and the results of his theory of governance.
November 23, 2008
Interesting view into the mind of Machiavelli. In this book he discusses government on a scientific basis, discussing it and separating it from ethics... talking about it on its own terms. The Discourses is a treatise on ruling and retaining rule in a Republic political system. Those who would lead know learning can come from all sources.
July 16, 2008
The Western counterpart to Sun Tzu's masterwork and every bit its equal.
Warning: may induce megalomaniacal tendencies
Warning: may induce megalomaniacal tendencies
September 11, 2023
I'm only cryptic and Machiavellian 'cause I care
August 20, 2014
Niccolò Machiavelli (b.1467-d.1527) has gotten a bad rap. He is not an amoral despot-maker and early spin-doctor. He is a Renaissance-era political scientist and historian. And that famous adjective, Machiavellian, is described in at least one Italian dictionary as: 'The mistaken utilitarian interpretation of Machiavelli's writings'.
His famous, or infamous, book Il Principe - The Prince is not really “Despotry for Dummies”, but an expert description of the efficient functioning of a Principality, which was in those times, actually, from the beginning of human city-dwelling 10,000 years ago, the primary form of political governance.
But what most people don’t realize is that Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a companion piece to Discorsi sulla prima deca di Tito Livio - Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius. Livy was a prolific Ancient Roman historian. The Discourses was the major work of the two books; a comprehensive book of several hundred pages in three volumes describing and lauding Ancient Rome’s republican era.
Read the full and illustrated review at Italophile Book Reviews at
http://italophilebookreviews.blogspot...
His famous, or infamous, book Il Principe - The Prince is not really “Despotry for Dummies”, but an expert description of the efficient functioning of a Principality, which was in those times, actually, from the beginning of human city-dwelling 10,000 years ago, the primary form of political governance.
But what most people don’t realize is that Machiavelli wrote The Prince as a companion piece to Discorsi sulla prima deca di Tito Livio - Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius. Livy was a prolific Ancient Roman historian. The Discourses was the major work of the two books; a comprehensive book of several hundred pages in three volumes describing and lauding Ancient Rome’s republican era.
Read the full and illustrated review at Italophile Book Reviews at
http://italophilebookreviews.blogspot...
October 8, 2008
The infamous pamphlet that established the basic strategies for military and city-state conquest for ages. Machiavelli looks to Caesar Borgia as his model of the ideal, calculating militant leader. Machiavelli calls for an appeal to the people through fear and respect, insisting that they must be treated well enough to maintain control. He writes: "Is it better to be loved or feared, or vice versa? I don't doubt that every prince would like to be both; but since it is hard to accommodate these qualities, if you have to make a choice, to be feared is much safer than to be loved. For it is a good general rule about men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, liars and deceivers, fearful of danger and greedy for gain."
The Prince is the bible of modern realpolitik. It is a cynical tract containing twenty six guidelines for taking (and maintaining power). Machiavelli supports his arguments with an astonishing depth and breadth of understanding of military history, and this work remains one of the great accounts of military strategy, along with Thucydides and Hobbes.
The Prince is the bible of modern realpolitik. It is a cynical tract containing twenty six guidelines for taking (and maintaining power). Machiavelli supports his arguments with an astonishing depth and breadth of understanding of military history, and this work remains one of the great accounts of military strategy, along with Thucydides and Hobbes.
March 3, 2011
Anyone with an interest in history and politics should read Machiavelli, who was one of the first people to write about the world as it really is, not as it should be. So far I've read The Prince twice, but got about halfway into The Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy. It has said that The Price was about monarchies and The Discourses was about republics, and from what I have read would have to agree. I have done other reading about him and his time and would like to read the rest of his works.
June 14, 2018
My review may not be fair for others to use... this is purely based off of my taste and inability to read historical non-fiction.
There's a lot of insight and historical wisdom in this book, but it's also DRY. It took a ton of energy to maintain attention... I found it very difficult to keep with. If it weren't for the historical importance of the book, I would've stopped earlier.
There's a lot of insight and historical wisdom in this book, but it's also DRY. It took a ton of energy to maintain attention... I found it very difficult to keep with. If it weren't for the historical importance of the book, I would've stopped earlier.
July 29, 2008
A good read, but I'm biased-- I really resent Machiaveli's way of thinking. As Oscar Wilde succinctly put it: ""We are all in the gutter, but some of us are reaching for the stars." So reach for some damn stars, you self-serving, greedy, nihilist mo-fo.
January 21, 2010
A delightful and thought provoking book. The reputation of Machiavelli lead me to think that this would be a dark and heavy read. It was the opposite: a insightful, and directly honest look at the issues of being a political animal.
February 11, 2010
Certainly a way of looking at things! Read as a kid and honestly was horrified the first time I read it. Later, I could reject what I rejected much more reasonably. I'd say a must read for general information about a way of interpreting the world and how the world works.
June 5, 2017
Machiavelli is in many cases misunderstood. It is odd to say such a thing, because no one completely understands The Prince. Was it a manual, or was it satire? Either way, Machaivelli's work is brilliant and fluid.
February 3, 2021
A book 5 centuries old still holds value in many of today's conversations. That is the pinnacle of value and with only 100 pages it completely respects everyone's time. I'm transformed by such quality.
July 28, 2008
Amazing insight into power.
September 11, 2008
I thought this would be a lot more mean spirited than it was judging by his name. It turns out it just practical information on how to run a medieval government. But I repeat myself
March 8, 2009
It was pretty boring, but disturbing thing was how 'ordinary' these ideas seemed. Our times are completely in tune with the outlook of this historically-derided character...
March 11, 2009
Not light reading, but interesting.
Read
September 23, 2010The Prince and The Discourses by Niccolo Machiavelli (1950)
April 27, 2014
Completely revolutionary book.
May 12, 2015
Not the most exciting read, but some great quotes.
September 13, 2020
I just read The Prince, and not the Discourses, and I've read it before, but this is a truly complicated, compelling work that I love and would highly recommend to anyone.
June 6, 2022
Долното се отнася изцяло за това конкретно издание, не за отделните произведения в него.
За "Владетелят" е казано много, няма нужда да повтарям. В този ми препрочит ми се наби на очи тезата на Макиавели за неутралитета (най-добре да се избере страна, а не да се пази неутралитет), както и откритието, че той хич не е толкова циничен, колкото го изкарват, и че далеч не е големият почитател на Чезаре Борджия, а в прав текст си казва, че успехите на последния свършват със смъртта на баща му. Тук няма нищо неясно, 5 звезди от раз.
С "Размишления върху първите десет книги на Тит Ливий" обаче, положението не е толкова розово. И то не със самия текст, а с това, че... не е целият. Включени са няколко глави от първа от трите книги, една глава от втора, и нищо (!) от трета. Защо е такова положението, не се казва, даже самият факт, че е не е цялото произведение е споменат мимоходом в обяснителните бележки, а в анотацията ни дума. Защо са избрани точно тези части да бъдат включени, по какъв критерий и защо не други, защо е пропуснато останалото - ни дума, ни ред. Адски мразя такива изпълнения, особено като не се и анонсират (то аз и на адаптации и заглавия от типа "Избрано" (от кого? по какви критерии?) не се радвам особено, а когато не са обявени съвсем), така че тук - 1/5.
Средно - 3 звезди. Ако беше целият текст на "Размишления върху първите десет книги на Тит Ливий" щеше да е повече.
За "Владетелят" е казано много, няма нужда да повтарям. В този ми препрочит ми се наби на очи тезата на Макиавели за неутралитета (най-добре да се избере страна, а не да се пази неутралитет), както и откритието, че той хич не е толкова циничен, колкото го изкарват, и че далеч не е големият почитател на Чезаре Борджия, а в прав текст си казва, че успехите на последния свършват със смъртта на баща му. Тук няма нищо неясно, 5 звезди от раз.
С "Размишления върху първите десет книги на Тит Ливий" обаче, положението не е толкова розово. И то не със самия текст, а с това, че... не е целият. Включени са няколко глави от първа от трите книги, една глава от втора, и нищо (!) от трета. Защо е такова положението, не се казва, даже самият факт, че е не е цялото произведение е споменат мимоходом в обяснителните бележки, а в анотацията ни дума. Защо са избрани точно тези части да бъдат включени, по какъв критерий и защо не други, защо е пропуснато останалото - ни дума, ни ред. Адски мразя такива изпълнения, особено като не се и анонсират (то аз и на адаптации и заглавия от типа "Избрано" (от кого? по какви критерии?) не се радвам особено, а когато не са обявени съвсем), така че тук - 1/5.
Средно - 3 звезди. Ако беше целият текст на "Размишления върху първите десет книги на Тит Ливий" щеше да е повече.
September 20, 2020
Napisałbym że M. nie był taki zły, jak się powszechnie sądzi, ale to trochę banał.
Książę zajmuje się czasami Machiavelliemu współczesnymi, czyli ~XV-wieczną Florencją i zawierają porady dla monarchów. Forma prosta, niemal algorytmiczna. Typowy rozdział wygląda w uproszczeniu tak: jeśli X, zrób Y, ale tylko gdy Z. Co ciekawe, sam utwór wysłał do króla i zamierzał przy jego pomocy wkupić się w jego łaski. #makiawelizm
"Rozważania (...)" opowiadają o czasach Rzymu za czasów republiki, które M. wyraźnie idealizuje #kiedyś_to_było
Czy lepiej jest wzbudzać strach czy miłość? Czy lepiej kierować się zasadami czy skutecznością? Czy i jak nagradzać i karać lud? Let's find out...
Mam wrażenie że czasem porady są zbyt proste. M. zdaje się zbyt dużą wagę przywiązywać do jakości dowódców i politycznej gry zakulisowej, a za małą do wielkości wojsk. Choć on był politykiem całe życie, a ja znam politykę i średniowiecze z Medieval II.
Wydanie rozpoczyna się dobrym wstępem który omawia pokrótce postać autora, co pozwala czytelnikowi inaczej na niego spojrzeć. Okazuje się że paradoksalnie sam M. nie był w stanie wprowadzić w życie zasad, które opisywał.
Książę zajmuje się czasami Machiavelliemu współczesnymi, czyli ~XV-wieczną Florencją i zawierają porady dla monarchów. Forma prosta, niemal algorytmiczna. Typowy rozdział wygląda w uproszczeniu tak: jeśli X, zrób Y, ale tylko gdy Z. Co ciekawe, sam utwór wysłał do króla i zamierzał przy jego pomocy wkupić się w jego łaski. #makiawelizm
"Rozważania (...)" opowiadają o czasach Rzymu za czasów republiki, które M. wyraźnie idealizuje #kiedyś_to_było
Czy lepiej jest wzbudzać strach czy miłość? Czy lepiej kierować się zasadami czy skutecznością? Czy i jak nagradzać i karać lud? Let's find out...
Mam wrażenie że czasem porady są zbyt proste. M. zdaje się zbyt dużą wagę przywiązywać do jakości dowódców i politycznej gry zakulisowej, a za małą do wielkości wojsk. Choć on był politykiem całe życie, a ja znam politykę i średniowiecze z Medieval II.
Wydanie rozpoczyna się dobrym wstępem który omawia pokrótce postać autora, co pozwala czytelnikowi inaczej na niego spojrzeć. Okazuje się że paradoksalnie sam M. nie był w stanie wprowadzić w życie zasad, które opisywał.
November 28, 2022
An open window into the geopolitical situation of Machiavelli's Italy, contrasted with his own analysis of Roman history, which Machiavelli sees as key to understanding the functions of his Italy. Often misunderstood as an endorsement of monarchical tyranny; Machiavelli was, in fact, a lover of the republic, the same republic which he was exiled by the resurgent Medicis for supporting. The Prince can either be taken as a lengthy request to be introduced to Florentine government, an analysis of the unique strain of authoritarianism that is successful only in small city-states, or a veiled criticism of the tyranny of the Medicis. Whatever interpretation is true is up to the reader, and it is all framed against the backdrop of Machiavelli's unique take on the history of the Roman republic that preceded his country's state.
March 2, 2021
"Цель оправдывает средства", - под таким лозунгом пляшут макиавеллисты всего мира. Чаще всего он подразумевает под собой цели и средства в государственной политике со стороны власти. То есть, Макиавелли в своем труде прямо говорит о том, что "государю" стоит силой защищать свою власть, ибо люд неграмотен и приведет страну к развалу. Отсюда эта книга стала "настольной" у любого тирана монарха Европы. Ну и, понятное дело, у современных диктаторов/автократов эта книга наверняка расположена на ближней полке.
К XXI веку учение Макиавелли полностью устарело, демократия и свобода - высшие ценности человека, а именно их Макиавелли угнетает в своей книге.
К XXI веку учение Макиавелли полностью устарело, демократия и свобода - высшие ценности человека, а именно их Макиавелли угнетает в своей книге.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews