The Good, The Bad, and The Useful. Machiavelli's Abolition of Virtues

Abstract

The article suggests that Niccolò Machiavelli (1469Machiavelli ( -1527 is a crucial figure in a kind of understanding of politics in which no general rules can hope to grasp the contingent nature of political action, and that his "theory of politics" would inevitably mean the abolition of any virtues connected to political action. It is useful for the prince to remain "good" when he can but also to enter "evil" when necessary. In particular, this means shaking off the demands of Christian virtues, or any other essentially defeatist philosophies like that of the Stoics, which sing praise for the constancy of character in the face of changing fortune. Nevertheless, though Machiavelli's idea may contain an innuendo that those situations that require entering into evil would occur only occasionally, it is actually, according to him, a rather normal feature of political life. Machiavelli can thus be understood as the first exponent of the rather post-modern attitude towards politics. If politics is the art of dealing with the contingent event, where conditions do not remain serialized, reproduced or structured, it requires transformation from the actors themselves. No constancy of character is needed from successful political actors, and it is particularly imprudent to uphold some putatively eternal virtues that in the end prohibit the needed response to changing situations.

Sources of governmentality

“…Those who opposed Machiavelli were practically returning to older principles, not putting forth new ideas. When Machiavelli blatantly advised moral flexibility to the prince (see Korvela, 2007), this was a true innovation in Christian Europe. He also removed the aim ('the salvation of all') of the state and replaced it with an analysis of the beginning of states.…”