What would Socrates say to Machiavelli?

Socrates would be appalled at Machiavelli’s concept of a Prince. His ideas are in complete opposition to those Machiavelli presents in The Prince. Socrates said, “the unexamined life is not worth living” (Apology, 38a).…

How are Socrates and Machiavelli similar?

Machiavelli and Socrates both share a similar background filled with political fragmentation and violence; however, the two philosophers would not see eye to eye on the way the government should be ran. Both men are very different in how the government should be structured and treat its people.

What is Machiavelli’s significance?

Italian diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli is best known for writing The Prince, a handbook for unscrupulous politicians that inspired the term “Machiavellian” and established its author as the “father of modern political theory.”

How are Machiavelli and Plato similar?

Plato and Machiavelli treat the revolutionary leader in the same vein, essentially prescribing different leaders through the same process. They also both ascribe to their leaders the understanding of pervasive metaphysical forces, and advocate similar treatments of knowledge, and presentations of public image.

Would Machiavelli agree that Socrates should stay out of politics?

Socrates would put people over the state, and Machiavelli thinks the state should be over the people. Socrates is not well liked by the people, so Machiavelli would not want him involved in politics.

What did Niccolo Machiavelli write about in The Prince?

The Prince, political treatise by Niccolò Machiavelli, written in 1513. A short treatise on how to acquire power, create a state, and keep it, The Prince represents Machiavelli’s effort to provide a guide for political action based on the lessons of history and his own experience as a foreign secretary in Florence.

How was Machiavelli different from other philosophers?

The major difference between Machiavelli and the Socratics, according to Strauss, is Machiavelli’s materialism, and therefore his rejection of both a teleological view of nature and of the view that philosophy is higher than politics.

What influenced Machiavelli to write The Prince?

One of the real-life models Machiavelli took inspiration from when writing The Prince was Cesare Borgia, a crude, brutal and cunning prince of the Papal States whom Machiavelli had observed first-hand. Ultimately, even Borgia would succumb to ill fortune when his father, Pope Alexander VI, became ill and died.