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Machiavelli's The Prince - Foundational Thinkers Lecture (Patreon)

Published:
2024-03-16 20:47:40
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2026-06
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  • Foundational Thinkers Lecture One Machiavelli.mp3

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Content

'The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognise traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.'

Today we are discussing one of the most influential works of political philosophy of all time: Niccoló Machiavelli's The Prince.

We're discussing whether it's better to be loved or feared, how to imitate the fox and the lion, crushing enemies, the need to be loved, and much more. We'll examine case studies that include Henry V, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Cesare Borgia, Pope Alexander VI, Philopoemen, Elizabeth I, Richard III, Stalin, and Napoleon.

This discussion is the first in our quarterly series of special standalone deep dives into the foundational thinkers of the Western tradition. This lecture is designed for readers who are coming to Machiavelli fresh, so you do not need to have read it prior to listening. You may wish to have your copy open during the talk, marking passages that resonate with you, or you might find it useful to listen to the lecture first and then start working your way through the text.

Timestamps:

  • 0:00 how Machiavelli’s The Prince was born
  • 2:00 why did Machiavelli write The Prince?
  • 3:00 how this book influenced the world
  • 5:00 Machiavelli five hundred years on
  • 6:00 advice for how to read Machiavelli
  • 8:00 how to read philosophy & non-fiction
  • 10:00 reading the beginning of The Prince
  • 11:00 hereditary vs new principalities
  • 12:00 on renaissance figures of speech
  • 13:00 is it better to be loved or feared?
  • 15:00 Machiavelli’s thoughts on Christianity
  • 17:00 why you should study Shakespeare
  • 18:00 how ‘Machiavel’ became a stock villain
  • 19:00 appearing virtuous whilst enacting vice
  • 20:00 five qualities princes should appear to have
  • 22:00 the case study of Henry V at Agincourt
  • 23:00 why the compassionate must be cruel
  • 25:00 Prince Hal/King Henry vs Falstaff
  • 26:00 the ruler must become a symbol
  • 27:00 men unite under leaders they love
  • 28:00 Queen Elizabeth’s iconic speech
  • 29:00 the case study of Napoleon Bonaparte
  • 33:00 is authority seized or bestowed?
  • 35:00 Machiavelli’s diplomatic career
  • 37:00 the case study of Cesare Borgia
  • 39:00 when mercy becomes the real cruelty
  • 41:00 the case study of Hannibal
  • 42:00 why a ruler must avoid being despised
  • 43:00 case study of Richard III & Stalin
  • 45:00 do the ends justify the means?
  • 46:00 being realistic vs being idealistic
  • 47:00 Machiavelli vs traditional princely virtues
  • 48:00 the case study of Pope Alexander VI
  • 49:00 why rulers should imitate fox & lion
  • 51:00 what do we mean when we say virtue?
  • 53:00 one can be hated for good and bad deeds
  • 55:00 the virtue of generosity & Julius Caesar
  • 57:00 three important Machiavellian rules
  • 58:00 case study of Marcus Aurelius vs Severus
  • 1:00:00 thinking several chess moves in advance
  • 1:01:00 how to treat your enemies & your friends
  • 1:02:00 on crushing totally to avoid revenge
  • 1:04:00 power from fortune vs prowess
  • 1:05:00 the cause of Cesare Borgia’s downfall
  • 1:06:00 the dangers of disarming one’s subjects
  • 1:07:00 why some rulers foster civil strife
  • 1:09:00 why rulers cannot remain neutral
  • 1:10:00 how the Romans approach warfare
  • 1:12:00 war as the foundation of state
  • 1:14:00 how to keep your people happy
  • 1:14:00 surround yourself with great people
  • 1:16:00 the imploration to improve yourself
  • 1:17:00 the case study of Philopoemen
  • 1:19:00 the grand battle of fortune vs prowess
  • 1:21:00 preparing for conflict in times of peace
  • 1:22:00 model yourself on great examples
  • 1:23:00 should The Prince be our textbook?
  • 1:24:00 lessons we can take from Machiavelli
  • 1:27:00 what do you make of this work?

Resources to Explore:

  • Edition: If you would like the same edition as myself, I'm working from this Penguin Paperback edition translated by George Bull. Although, throughout the discussion, I refer to chapters rather than page numbers to make locating passages easy regardless of which edition you read.
  • Theatre: Studying Shakespeare is incredibly fruitful for those wishing to explore machiavellian principles in dramatic form. If you haven’t already, you might want to pick one of the following plays that interests you the most and watch it: Henry IV, Henry V, Richard III, Julius Caesar, Measure for Measure, Othello.
  • Television: If you want a real cinematic treat, I highly recommend watching the entire Henriad saga in the Hollow Crown television adaptation. You might also enjoy The Borgias, in which Machiavelli himself is a character and we see his meeting with Cesare Borgia. 
  • Biography: Alexander Lee has a great biography about Niccolò Machiavelli, which is well worth dipping into if you're interested to learn more about his life and times. 
  • Explore: You may find it interesting to compare Machiavelli's writing with Aristotle's analysis of virtues in The Nicomachean Ethics. It would also be rewarding to contrast the mindsets in The Prince with those of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. For military strategy, there is Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

Questions for You:

1) Do you think it’s better to be loved or feared?

2) Where do you agree and disagree with Machiavelli?

3) Which characters that we've met qualify as machiavellian?

Please do share anything that resonates with you from our discussion and return here from your reading to let us know the passages that you find the most thought-provoking.

Happy reading, everybody!

Files

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Comments

Helen Lyons

I have to agree that fortune does play a role in our lives and if we can learn to capitalise on this as well as managing the bad times it is not a bad way to live. I once had a Manager who said that everyone needs a bit of good fortune thrown their way in work. To their credit they did throw out these chances, but the key was always to maintain it as the fall out was crushing.

Alexander

I won't lie I struggled with this one. Bit above my literary understanding

Gavin Wayne Bledsoe

Some could argue this is Putin, but perhaps that's too obvious, perhaps there are other current leaders that follow the 5 qualities of Machiavelli better.

Gavin Wayne Bledsoe

Justice is the greatest virtue? Cruel, ruthless, and deceitful, If we go to the past. Alexander IV.

Caroline A

One of the things I struggled with most in this reading was how many times I found myself nodding along to Machiavelli’s ideals- terrifying to agree with such a maligned writer! The chapter on ministers could well be applied to many workplaces today and improve them! Of course, the Cesare Borgia stuff not so much. I found this very interesting and read it alongside a new history of Catherine de Medici and 2 other renaissance queens and it made for an interesting comparison.

Walker Rowe

I am still reading this book. on page 60. Every single sentence includes so much information, write so clearly and succinctly. it's a text that lends itself more to study than to just reading. It's like philosophy, which involves logic. and in order to understand logic you have to use you reasoning skills. like you can't just blow through something like "Miserliness is one of those vices which sustain his rule."

Robin Floor

Answers alot of questions about my ex-husband, his buddies and his church. Should be a mandatory read for all women considering a relationship.

Samya Ghosh

I recently returned to my love and exploration of Italian Art and Culture (especially around the Renaissance and Baroque period) and was hoping to come across your approach to one of Italian literature’s classics! Thanks for this - such a great audio lecture! Really looking forward to reading Dante with you and the group later this year 🤌🏽🫶🏼

Craig Mckissick

Warning, this turned into an essay: I don’t know what this says about me but I think the ideas of The Prince are common sense to leaders as methods of self preservation. It reminds me of when I got bullied in school and a kid tried to fight me, punching and kicking. My dad said to me, ‘Son, if someone tries to fight, first talk your way out of it, if you absolutely have to fight, take the ringleader out by head butting his nose full force as hard as you can and if they stay up or get up, run, but if they stay down [which usually happens in his experience] everyone else runs. But if they do get a hold of you and it’s a punch kick situation be aware that there are no rules, thumb their eyes, hit them with any objects, use stairs and the environment as weapons.’ This got echoed to me by a friend who was in the army and said his regiment got provoked to fight by English, (I’m Scottish) purely by the old England Scotland rivalry and he said the English would say after getting a beating that the Scots didn’t play by the rules; using glass bottles, tables, biting and whatever other dirty tactics they could use but there are no rules in a street fight and it’s the same for politics. There are moral unwritten rules and governing bodies that are supposed maintain ‘peace’ or their interpretation of it but when dirty tactics can get used against you there is a level playing field available and survival instinct will sometimes be the only option. The problem lies when use of these tactics is totally uncalled for, when the justification is completely baseless, when you use the wrong reasons to justify the action, all of which is a matter of opinion. This is how America justifies gun laws, if someone can use them on you, you have a right to use them back, but where does it end? Just as well nuclear bombs aren’t more readily available… This is a stalemate and that’s ultimately why the ideal scenario would be to just say we’re all moral adults here but, there’s always one person that ruins it for everyone and forces everyone to play by Machiavellian rules. I think Machiavelli’s comparison to animals in nature is a fair one and I believe that no matter how developed our consciousness gets, as a race we can’t escape our animal parts of the brain. The planet had the conditions to create us, if we destroy the natural order of the planet with our gluttony, the planet will win every time with natural disasters. So while we might be top of the food chain, we are not bigger than nature itself. And that’s where the Machiavellian rules come in. We have the choice to let nature thrive but we’ve eaten the forbidden fruit, there’s always someone not playing by the rules because the only real rules are the laws of nature. We are always represented by the lowest common denominator who will achieve their objectives by any means necessary. The counter argument to nature always being more powerful and able kill us at any time is believing in the immortal soul, or some form of afterlife, as this implies that you will have to pay for your actions and this is something I do believe in. Religion says it’s true but so does science with the conservation of energy. Our consciousness must have an energy unquantifiable to us. Yes we can measure electrical impulses of the brain or the beating of a heart but we can also measure the speed of a car but who drives it? Our consciousness. We are simply not measuring the right metrics. If all energy is conserved where does it go when we die? Even if you believe we turn to dust and the consciousness dies, nothing can disappear only change, we are simply blinded by our senses which only show us what we developed to survive. And I believe only more religious ideas and common themes throughout history that are unquantifiable will only continue to be proven by science. There are still unknown metrics beyond current scientific understanding and they must be linked to moral goodness, or to use a word from an Aristotle translation, flourishing, because going back to the nature and planet earth idea: we can describe things as unnatural but everything is natural because everything has occurred through natural processes. Earth developed conditions that lead to human life, human life developed World Wars and Nuclear bombs using earths natural resources and conceived these horrible ideas using naturally developed minds. As humans on a personal level we have developed guilt when committing a wrong and also as a collective consider having no empathy a mental disorder and looking throughout history that has always been the case since we have pursued globalisation and it appears our capacity for empathy will continue to develop despite the atrocities humans continue to commit. It’s no coincidence the surviving literature of bygone eras (now known as classics) has one common purpose, to teach empathy? Nature developed guilt for a reason, yes there will always be the Machiavelli’s of the world but as a race we know right from wrong. The whole of human history and religion can’t be wrong, we know right from wrong for a reason and I believe all will become clear when our unquantifiable souls metamorphose into the unknown. Where does this leave Machiavelli? Well I think what we should take from him is that sometimes we need to do anything to survive and he gives us these dirty tactics for when we need them which hopefully we won’t. It says to me that we need to think globally and stop competing amongst ourselves nationally so that we don’t have to resort to these tactics on a political level and therefor we can put our competitive energies into more healthy endeavours that will allow us to flourish and put up a fight against natural disasters. Although I believe in the afterlife, I still think it’s the morally right thing to want a long life, so I think it’s our duty to get as much experience from this life as we can.