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The Prince by Machaivelli

INSTRUCTIONS:

Please only choose ONE of the questions based on the book "The Prince" by Macchiaveli listed below and answer it in 4 pages. Try to answer the question, and to develop a persuasive argument in answer to the question. Please include a clear and well structured thesis statement. 1) The first sentence of Hannah Fenichel Pitkin’s book, Fortune is a Woman, is “Niccolò Machiavelli may well be the most political of all the great political theorists; and, like politics itself, Machiavelli horrifies and repels us, yet also attracts and fascinates” (Pitkin 1984, 3). Do you think this description of Machiavelli’s political thought is accurate? What aspects of Machiavelli’s thought are horrifying and repulsive? What aspects are fascinating or attractive? Use examples from The Prince (Machiavelli 2019 [1532]) to explain your answer. 2)What are some of the key aspects of Machiavelli’s political advice to princes? What kind of character should a prince cultivate? How should princes provide for military defense? What other political advice does he offer? Briefly assess this advice and whether it applies to contemporary political leaders or is more appropriate for leaders of Machiavelli’s time. 3) Thomas Hobbes makes frequent references to science, and to geometry, in Leviathan (2018 [1651]). Discuss some of the specific ways that Hobbes discusses science and how he believes it can help to understand political life. Do you think Hobbes is correct in this argument? Why or why not? 4)Discuss Hobbes’ view of human nature, and how humans relate to each other in the state or nature, and under the social contract. Would you want to live in a society bound by the social contract Hobbes describes? Why or why not?
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