Machiavelli on Human Nature

Machiavelli on Human nature Machiavelli was a true child of renaissance. He assimilated the political aspirations of his times and converted into a coherent and acceptable theory paving the way towards a Nation state system based on secularism and individualism. His concepts and principles may not be always plausible; but no one can deny his role in the particular juncture in the transformation of the European world. He filled a great gap in the theory and practice of politics in Europe. Machiavelli was a follower of Aristotle. Machiavelli started at the point in which Aristotle stopped. He freely used the various concepts of Aristotle. Machiavelli followed Reason. His method was based on scientific observation. He tried to learn from history and the past. It is called Historical Method. He studied contemporary politics. On the basis of it, he formed theories. He proved his theories on the basis of history. He based his thinking on truth and reality. It is called Realism. It is not based on philosophy. He was more interested in the actual working of the government. He was interested in the protection and preservation of the state. He was not worried about the excellence of the Constitution. He believed that there is no point in having an excellent Constitution, if it does not protect the State. He also viewed state affairs from the standpoint of the ruler. The ruled people were only secondary to Machiavelli. Above all, he said that there is only one sword to rule the nation. That is the sword of Secularism. He did not allow religion in politics. He did not want religion to rule the state. According to Machiavelli, human nature is not good. But it is bad. According to him, man is “ungrateful, fickle, deceitful, cowardly and avaricious”. They are originally irrational. They do not think based on reason. They work according to their emotions. They are emotional beings. They are not rational beings. There is only one method to control them. It is through emotions. They can be controlled only through Fear. Fear is the dominating element in man. Therefore, a King or a Prince must make use of the Fear to control people. The people must fear a Prince. The Prince must represent fear. Machiavelli’s concept of Human nature is given in his famous work ‘The Prince’. It can be summarised as follows: 1. Human nature is essentially not good. Man, by nature is selfish. He is self centred. He is greedy. By nature, men love property and material objects than his own people and other human beings. Machiavelli said that people can forget their ancestors but not their property. 2. Man always remains unsatisfied because he is always greedy. 3. Human beings are always aggressive. He is interested in acquire more and more. His greed never ends. 4. By nature, human beings work against collective interests because he is selfish. 5. By nature human beings are ambitious. They very fast get tired of the old and seeks things new and things which caters to his fancy. 6. Human beings generally want liberty. 6. Human beings generally want liberty. Machiavellian view on human nature is always criticized for its inability to see the other side of the picture. He had depicted only one side of human nature. It may be true that there may be bad elements in his behaviour. But that is not the final. There is always the other side. He failed to explore the human nature from its entirety.