Ryoichi Okada
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Machiavelli
He wrote The Discourses and expected it to be his greatest work when he was writing it in exile. In some accounts, the totality of his ideas are written in The Discourses. In this book, he suggested some techniques for the republican government. In short, this book is for a state ruled by a representative or whatever you may call that person. But he himself as a politician, sees the other side of the issue. He wrote The Prince, which suggests or inform ways on how to run a country by one ruler alone. As I discovered that The Prince and The Discourses was written almost at the same time, (you know what I mean) it gave me the idea that Machiavelli is somehow not bias. He really is a great thinker. He doesn't only think for the good, but he also thinks for the bad. He weighs his ideas separately. I think it will be awkward to combine the two books in a one, can it be possible he wrote The Prince because of this idea? He can't keep the ideas refuting his work in The Discourses and just decided to write another book about it. Possible?
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But why would he think that his great ideas were on the book 'The Discourses' and considered 'The Prince' as nothing (or somewhat like that)? If his ideas were only contradicting, why not write a book which incorporate the two contradicting ideas and just change the title? I think a better explanation is the one that Dr. Nemenzo told us.. na nagpapasipsip lang si Macchiaveli sa Prince kaya gumawa siya ng ibang libro
ReplyDeleteYes, maybe ganun nga. and its possible na pagsamahin ung The Prince and The Discourses, but the problem is, these two "books" are intended for different people...
ReplyDeleteyah..sorry for the word 'contradicting'.. i should have used the term 'separate'.. pero ang sinasabi ko lang ay pwede niyang pagsamahin yung dalawang separate ideas. Di sapat na rason na dahil may separate ideas siya e gagawa na siya ng dalawang libro at tsaka di naman pantay ung paghanga niya sa dalawang libro.. kasi kung pareho niyang pinapahalagahan ung dalawa niyang idea e sana pareho niya ring papahalagahan yung dalawang libro niya. parang meron lang talaga siyang ibang motibo.
ReplyDeleteThis is correct. Machiavelli was fond of paradoxes. The two elements of a paradox are not incompatible. In fact, he tried to show what what are usually viewed as contradictory are two sides of the same coin.
ReplyDeleteFN
Yes, I see your point, and I am also bothered by the idea that he wrote these books at the same time, because most people will write a book first before starting with the other one...One thing I can think of is that while writing The Discourses, something triggered him to write The Prince, and while some ideas are written in The Discourses, he may have thought of other ideas which he can address to the current prince, if not so, there's no reason to write two books at the same time
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