Download or read book On Machiavelli The Search for Glory Liveright Classics written by Alan Ryan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2013-11-18 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential, comprehensive, and accessible guide to the life and works of Machiavelli. In On Machiavelli: The Search for Glory, Alan Ryan illuminates the political and philosophical complexities of the often-reviled godfather of realpolitik. Thought by some to be the founder of Italian nationalism, regarded by others to be a reviver of the Roman Republic as a model for the modern Western world, Machiavelli remains a contentious figure. Often outraging popular opinion with his insistence on the amoral nature of power, Machiavelli eschewed the world as it ought to be in favor of a forthright appraisal of the one that is. Perhaps more than any other thinker, Machiavelli has suffered from being taken out of context, and Ryan places him squarely within his own time and the politics of a Renaissance Italy riven by near-constant warfare among rival city-states and the papacy. A well-educated son of Florence, Machiavelli was originally in charge of the Florentine Republic’s militia, but in 1512 the city fell to papal forces led by Cardinal Giovanni de Medici, who thus restored the Medici family to power. Machiavelli was accused of conspiracy, imprisoned, tortured, and eventually exiled from his beloved Florence, and it was during this period that he produced his most famous works. While attempting to ingratiate himself to the Medicis, the historically minded Machiavelli looked to the imperial ambitions and past glories of the Roman Republic as a contrast to the perceived failures of his contemporaries. For Machiavelli, the hunger for power and glory was inextricable from human nature, and any serious attempt to rule must take this into account. In his revolutionary The Prince and Discourses—both excerpted here—Machiavelli created the first truly modern analysis of power.
Download or read book On Machiavelli written by Alan Ryan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2013-11-18 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains a chronology of Machiavelli's life, an introduction and text by Alan Ryan that provides context and analysis, and key excerpts from Machiavelli's The Prince and his Discourses.
Download or read book On Machiavelli written by Alan Ryan and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2015-07-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential, comprehensive, and accessible guide to the life and works of Machiavelli. In On Machiavelli: The Search for Glory, Alan Ryan illuminates the political and philosophical complexities of the often-reviled godfather of realpolitik. Thought by some to be the founder of Italian nationalism, regarded by others to be a reviver of the Roman Republic as a model for the modern Western world, Machiavelli remains a contentious figure. Often outraging popular opinion with his insistence on the amoral nature of power, Machiavelli eschewed the world as it ought to be in favor of a forthright appraisal of the one that is. Perhaps more than any other thinker, Machiavelli has suffered from being taken out of context, and Ryan places him squarely within his own time and the politics of a Renaissance Italy riven by near-constant warfare among rival city-states and the papacy. A well-educated son of Florence, Machiavelli was originally in charge of the Florentine Republic’s militia, but in 1512 the city fell to papal forces led by Cardinal Giovanni de Medici, who thus restored the Medici family to power. Machiavelli was accused of conspiracy, imprisoned, tortured, and eventually exiled from his beloved Florence, and it was during this period that he produced his most famous works. While attempting to ingratiate himself to the Medicis, the historically minded Machiavelli looked to the imperial ambitions and past glories of the Roman Republic as a contrast to the perceived failures of his contemporaries. For Machiavelli, the hunger for power and glory was inextricable from human nature, and any serious attempt to rule must take this into account. In his revolutionary The Prince and Discourses—both excerpted here—Machiavelli created the first truly modern analysis of power.
Download or read book On Aristotle Saving Politics from Philosophy Liveright Classics written by Alan Ryan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2013-11-18 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential, comprehensive, and accessible guide to the life and works of Aristotle. In On Aristotle: Saving Politics from Philosophy, Alan Ryan examines Plato's most famous student and sharpest critic, whose writing has helped shape over two millennia of Western philosophy, science, and religion. The first thinker to posit that a society should be ruled by laws and not men, Aristotle was born in Stagira, Macedon, in 384 BCE. He would go on to join Plato's Academy and eventually become tutor to Alexander the Great. During his lifetime he would see the revival of Athens following its destruction in the Peloponnesian War, before the ultimate extinction of its radical form of democracy after the Macedonian conquest. Aristotle’s strongly empirical cast of mind was brought to bear on a stunning range of subjects, from rhetoric to physics, from the history of political institutions and mathematics to zoology and botany. The resulting system dominated European thought from the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries. In Nicomachean Ethics and Politics—both excerpted here—Aristotle attempted to delineate the ideal virtues of a both public and private life as well as critique the utopian antipolitics of his former teacher, Plato. For Aristotle, life in a polis was the natural state of man and provided the greatest opportunity for human beings to fulfill their potential. Unlike his scientific theories, which would eventually be displaced by Galileo, Newton, and Darwin, Aristotle’s meticulous thinking on the nature of human affairs, ethics, politics, citizenship, and virtue in a civil society remains as vital today as it was in his own time.
Download or read book Machiavelliana written by Michael Jackson and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Machiavelliana Michael Jackson and Damian Grace offer a comprehensive study of the uses and abuses of Niccolò Machiavelli’s name in society generally and in academic fields distant from his intellectual origins. It assesses the appropriation of Machiavelli in didactic works in management, social psychology, and primatology, scholarly texts in leaderships studies, as well as novels, plays, commercial enterprises, television dramas, operas, rap music, Mach IV scales, children’s books, and more. The book audits, surveys, examines, and evaluates this Machiavelliana against wider claims about Machiavelli. It explains the origins of Machiavelli’s reputation and the spread of his fame as the foundation for the many uses and misuses of his name. They conclude by redressing the most persistent distortions of Machiavelli.
Download or read book On Hobbes Escaping the War of All Against All Liveright Classics written by Alan Ryan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2015-11-16 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guiding light to America’s Founding Fathers, Hobbes created the first truly modern political philosophy. In Leviathan, one of the greatest works of political philosophy of all time, English philosopher Thomas Hobbes created the idea of a “social contract” and set out to explicate a doctrine for the foundation of states and legitimate forms of government. In On Hobbes, Alan Ryan explains how Hobbes created the secular conception of the state and politics in one of the first truly modern works of political philosophy. Inverting Aristotle’s view of politics, Hobbes argued that humans organize themselves into political communities not out of any sociable impulse to pursue the good life in common, but rather out of an unsociable fear of one another and for the sake of avoiding the greatest evil of all: death. Ryan explicates how modern notions of individual rights, sovereignty, representative government, and almost all liberal political theory find their foundation in the work of Hobbes. Excerpted here are: Leviathan, The Elements of Law.
Download or read book On Augustine The Two Cities Liveright Classics written by Alan Ryan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2015-11-16 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No philosopher speaks more immediately to the excesses of our twenty-first-century world and the limits of human reason than Augustine. It would be almost impossible to exaggerate the influence of Augustine—the once-hedonistic pagan turned ascetic theologian and defender of the early Christian Church—over all the subsequent history of Europe. Augustine ’s political philosophy is pregnant with arguments that racked not only Christian Europe but also much of the modern world. Whether it was his essential skepticism about the value of earthly politics when contrasted with eternity, the role of a Christian within the State, or the nature of just war and the folly of imperial ambitions, Augustine articulated distinctive and long-lived thoughts on controversial subjects that remain embedded in our political discourse. In On Augustine: The Two Cities Alan Ryan carefully lays out the complicated political, philosophical, and religious context of Augustine and traces the history of his impact on Western thought both within and beyond the Christian tradition. Excerpted here are: The City of God, Confessions.
Download or read book Machiavelli written by Niccolò Machiavelli and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1989-07-27 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From praise for the 1965 edition: Allan Gilbert is unquestionably the most accurate and reliable translator of Machiavelli into English; the publication of this edition is an altogether happy occasion. Students of the history of political thought owe a particular debt of gratitude to Allan Gilbert.”—Dante Germino, The Journal of Politics “A most remarkable achievement.”—Felix Gilbert, Renaissance Quarterly
Download or read book Machiavelli Redeemed written by Robert Kocis and published by Lehigh University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The true Machiavelli is not to be found in extremist interpretations. The fault for these misperceptions is partly his own: he spoke in provocative paradoxes to challenge sacred truths, and this makes it easy for observers to ignore the obvious. In this portrait, the obvious dominates our vision, and he emerges as a Renaissance humanist. Like all of us, Machiavelli was a flawed being with strains of greatness mixed with baser ingredients. But his political insights and recognition of the emergence of a new reality qualify him as a political genius. Neither devil nor saint, Machiavelli has languished too long in the Purgatory of the human imagination and deserves redemption."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Download or read book The Quotable Machiavelli written by Niccolò Machiavelli and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-12-20 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of insightful and revealing quotations on a wide range of subjects from the father of modern politics Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) is the father of modern political thought, but he is also one of the greatest writers of the Renaissance and his wisdom and style extend far beyond politics to encompass a compelling philosophy of life as well. In The Quotable Machiavelli, Maurizio Viroli, one of the world's leading Machiavelli scholars, offers a rich collection of the Florentine’s most memorable words on a wide range of subjects, including politics, the human condition, religion, love and happiness, antiquity and history, patriotism, and virtue. Drawing on Machiavelli’s entire body of writings, and including little-known quotations as well as famous passages, the book shows the full scope of his thought and belies the cliché that he was a "Machiavellian" cynic. In addition to Machiavelli’s own words on dozens of subjects of perennial interest, the book includes some almost unknown texts in which his contemporaries describe him. Complete with a biographical introduction, the book serves as a handy reference and a smart and lively introduction to a masterly thinker and writer. Includes a rich collection of Machiavelli’s most memorable words on a wide range of subjects, from politics to the human condition—almost 700 quotations in all Edited and introduced by one of the world’s leading Machiavelli scholars Serves as a smart and lively introduction to Machiavelli’s life and works Draws on the complete body of Machiavelli’s writings Features a brief biography of Machiavelli, a chronology of his life, suggestions for further reading, and an index
Download or read book The Prince written by Niccolo Machiavelli and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004-07 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents fifteenth-century Italian leader Niccolo Machiavelli's treatise on political power, statecraft, and the qualities of the ideal ruler, and includes historical context, explanatory notes, excerpts of criticism, discussion questions, and other study tools.
Download or read book The Essential Writings of Machiavelli written by Niccolo Machiavelli and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2007-04-03 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FINALIST--2008 PEN TRANSLATION PRIZE In The Essential Writings of Machiavelli, Peter Constantine has assembled a comprehensive collection that shows the true depth and breadth of a great Renaissance thinker. Refreshingly accessible, these superb new translations are faithful to Machiavelli’s original, beautifully crafted writings. The volume features essays that appear in English for the first time, such as “A Caution to the Medici” and “The Persecution of Africa.” Also included are complete versions of the political treatise, The Prince, the comic satire The Mandrake, The Life of Castruccio Castracani, and the classic story “Belfagor”, along with selections from The Discourses, The Art of War, and Florentine Histories. Augmented with useful features–vital and concise annotations and cross-references–this unique compendium is certain to become the standard one-volume reference to this influential, versatile, and ever timely writer. “Machiavelli's stress on political necessity rather than moral perfection helped inspire the Renaissance by renewing links with Thucydides and other classical thinkers. This new collection provides deeper insight into Machiavelli’s personality as a writer, thus broadening our understanding of him.” –Robert D. Kaplan, author of Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos “Constantine’s selection is not only intelligent; his translations are astonishingly good. Thoughtfully introduced by Albert Russell Ascoli, this edition belongs in everyone’s library.” –John Jeffries Martin, professor and chair, department of history, Trinity University “If one were to assign a single edition of Machiavelli's works, this most certainly would be it.” –John P. McCormick, professor, department of political science, University of Chicago
Download or read book The Prince classics Illustrated written by Niccolò Machiavelli and published by . This book was released on 2021-06-04 with total page 123 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, is a 16th-century political treatise. The Prince is sometimes claimed to be one of the first works of modern philosophy, especially modern political philosophy, in which the effective truth is taken to be more important than any abstract ideal. It was also in direct conflict with the dominant Catholic and scholastic doctrines of the time concerning politics and ethics.The Prince has the general theme of accepting that the aims of princes--such as glory and survival--can justify the use of immoral means to achieve those ends.Although it is relatively short, the treatise is the most remembered of Machiavelli's works and the one most responsible for bringing the word "Machiavellian" into usage as a pejorative. It even contributed to the modern negative connotations of the words "politics" and "politician" in western countries. In terms of subject matter it overlaps with the much longer Discourses on Livy, which was written a few years later.Machiavelli emphasized the need for realism, as opposed to idealism. Along with this, he stresses the difference between human-beings and animals since "there are two ways of contending, one in accordance with the laws, the other by force; the first of which is proper to men, the second to beast". In The Prince he does not explain what he thinks the best ethical or political goals are, except the control of one's own fortune, as opposed to waiting to see what chance brings. Machiavelli took it for granted that would-be leaders naturally aim at glory or honor. He associated these goals with a need for "virtue" and "prudence" in a leader, and saw such virtues as essential to good politics and indeed the common good. That great men should develop and use their virtue and prudence was a traditional theme of advice to Christian princes. And that more virtue meant less reliance on chance was a classically influenced "humanist commonplace" in Machiavelli's time, as Fischer says, even if it was somewhat controversial. However, Machiavelli went far beyond other authors in his time, who in his opinion left things to fortune, and therefore to bad rulers, because of their Christian beliefs. He used the words "virtue" and "prudence" to refer to glory-seeking and spirited excellence of character, in strong contrast to the traditional Christian uses of those terms, but more keeping with the original pre-Christian Greek and Roman concepts from which they derived. He encouraged ambition and risk taking. So in another break with tradition, he treated not only stability, but also radical innovation, as possible aims of a prince in a political community. Managing major reforms can show off a Prince's virtue and give him glory. He clearly felt Italy needed major reform in his time, and this opinion of his time is widely shared.Machiavelli's descriptions in The Prince encourage leaders to attempt to control their fortune gloriously, to the extreme extent that some situations may call for a fresh "founding" (or re-founding) of the "modes and orders" that define a community, despite the danger and necessary evil and lawlessness of such a project. Founding a wholly new state, or even a new religion, using injustice and immorality has even been called the chief theme of The Prince. Machiavelli justifies this position by explaining how if "a prince did not win love he may escape hate" by personifying injustice and immorality; therefore, he will never loosen his grip since "fear is held by the apprehension of punishment" and never diminishes as time goes by. For a political theorist to do this in public was one of Machiavelli's clearest breaks not just with medieval scholasticism, but with the classical tradition of political philosophy, especially the favorite philosopher of Catholicism at the time, Aristotle. This is one of Machiavelli's most lasting influences upon modernity.
Download or read book Machiavelli in Hell written by Sebastian De Grazia and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1994-01-13 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the life of Florentine thinker Niccolo Machiavelli, exploring his childhood, imprisonment, torture, friends, loves, and work.
Download or read book Machiavelli written by Ross King and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2007-05-29 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli's handbook on power—how to get it and how to keep it—has been enormously influential in the centuries since it was written, garnering a heady mixture of admiration, fear, and contempt. Its author, born to an established middle-class family, was no prince himself. Machiavelli (1469–1527) worked as a courtier and diplomat for the Republic of Florence and enjoyed some small fame in his time as the author of bawdy plays and poems. Upon the Medici's return to power, however, he found himself summarily dismissed from the government he had served for decades and exiled from the city where he was born. In this discerning new biography, Ross King rescues Machiavelli's legacy from caricature, detailing the vibrant political and social context that influenced his thought and underscoring the humanity of one of history's finest political thinkers. Ross King's Machiavelli visits fortune-tellers, produces wine on his Tuscan estate, travels Europe tirelessly on horseback as a diplomatic envoy, and is a passionate scholar of antiquity—but above all, a keen observer of human nature.
Download or read book Prince on War the Art of War Three All Time Classics on Politics War written by Carl Von Clausewitz and published by . This book was released on 2007-04 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time ever, three of the greatest treatises on politics and war ever written, in one beautiful volume.******This book contains the complete texts of Machiavelli's The Prince and Jomini's The Art of War, and an abridged version of On War by Cl
Download or read book Machiavelli Goes to the Movies written by Eric T. Kasper and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Niccol Machiavelli's The Prince remains an influential book more than five centuries after he wrote his timeless classic. However, the political philosophy expressed by Machiavelli in his tome is often misunderstood. Although he thought humans to be rational, self-interested creatures, and even though he proposed an approach to politics in which the ends justify the means, Machiavelli was not, as some have argued, simply "a teacher of evil." The Prince's many ancient and medieval examples, while relevant to sixteenth century readers, are lost on most of today's students of Machiavelli. Examples from modern films and television programs, which are more familiar and understandable to contemporary readers, provide a better way to accurately teach Machiavelli's lessons. Indeed, modern media, such as Breaking Bad, The Godfather, The Walking Dead, Charlie Wilson's War, House of Cards, Argo, and The Departed, are replete with illustrations that teach Machiavelli's critical principles, including the need to caress or annihilate, learning "how not to be good," why it is better to be feared than loved, and how to act as both the lion and the fox. Modern media are used in this book to exemplify the tactics Machiavelli advocated and to comprehensively demonstrate that Machiavelli intended for government actors and those exercising power in other contexts to fight for a greater good and strive to achieve glory.
