Modern Political Philosophy Chap 5 when you conquer a new land you either let them go on living their same lives which led to rebellion in Rome nothing changes but the ruler or establish an oligarchy which is most stable most it must be done over time gain trust and whatnot All the people want from the state is not to go too far don t shake things up The prince is always better off siding with the people In republics people identify with the state Subjects vs citizens Citizens are wrapped up in state hatred is keener and it s richer in life The surest way is to wipe them out or live with them Seeking unconditional surrender Politics is for cold realists not to buff your ego people The most successful politicians follow this model The less extravagant gesture gets you closer to what you want His hero is Caser Burja who violates his hypotheses You should pursue life by consciously over reaching set high goals you won t discover what you want otherwise step into the unknown Existence precedes essence what you do defines who you are Figure it out and then I ll do it Do it and you ll figure it out Interaction with others acquires knowledge Key Terms Fortune operation of chance in politics ex globalization in today s economy the sequence of decisions that get us there it didn t descent from heaven Vertu what we need to mobilize for fortune and the ability to deal with fortune you re trying to do more Neccessita enemy of fortune limitation of human choice it presents itself as we have no choice people who are competing each party must learn how to wield the weapons of your enemy Machevelli ex Vietnam War American forces couldn t adapt to guerilla warfare we had superior weapons but they kept regrouping and coming back We were too advanced to beat them we would have needed to regress back to guerilla warfare and we would have stood a chance use neccessita to control and defeat neccessita Principal of Economy do the bare minimum to achieve the maximum goal Violence is a part of politics a staple in the political state uses principal of economy violence Kill the members of the old royal family because it s a limited strategic play of violence to stop an uprising if they re still around to all out civil way which would yield more violence The prince should ally himself with the people over the nobility he believes in rule by the people You should involve yourself in as many spheres of politics as possible Because the nobility will only pretend to be your friends to take what you have because the power will spark jealously among the nobility The working class is only concerned with moving up the social latter and politics is just a gross intrusion They vote maybe but they don t have true interest As long as they don t tax too much or intrude too much it s a don t ask don t tell you do your thing and ill do mine relationship They will always side with the prince candidate who is asking the least from them Intelligence is not a prerequisite for political success A successful state is one where the people can speak up dissent If people can t speak and challenge up front it will happen underground people will conspire and burn the palace down Oppurtunita Chap 6 independence is a great virtue if you have too much help from your friends too many hands are in the pot It s me against the world You need an eye in the future and eye in the past and an eye that is constantly diagnosing the present always drawing lines between them it s never worth being too pessimistic but the same goes for being too optimistic setting the moral bar where everyone can obtain proper self realization and it s against the grain it won t be easy Opportunity is manifested paradoxically in the lack of opportunity when it can t be any worse that s your opportunity The highest level of human achievement is founding a kingdom Machevelli Ex Moses had the opportunity of an enslaved oppressed people to lead Analyzes him from a political position Knows how to respond to the times of the environment and navigate through them He can be a faithful Christian even though he makes claims as using religion as a political tool the word of God in Moses case Plato the one god cannot even be one Parmenides You can t quantify him he is the first but not the only one He is above our ability to do so If you so you create a comparison to all others He is behind the veil of ignorance You need the politics to have religion and Hobbs touches on it and Locke takes it for granted yielding liberalism the global goal the bible is the coronal of liberalism Mastery of Fragility Marx all that is solid melts to thin air under power the human condition is fragile when it is supposed to provide stability Power is parasitic on fragility and vice versa the fragility always returns 2008 Obama dominates the election and it s an uphill battle in 2012 Cerebral people have a tendency to be overly generous can t say no If you are forcing yourself to give through your intellectual process you feel the guilt of not giving it is a function of mental attribute Mach if you do so then where is the room for you You have no discipline and it distracts you from developing yourself he says the hardest thing to do is learn how to control your generosity Intellect is the prime source of power Cesare Borgia Accomplished the political unification of the Romagna After he defeats his opposition he has him cut in half in the public square if doesn t it creates a lot of political opposition and tries to take back power creating a civil war avoids civil war which would have killed 5 000 50 000 people by killing one detours future conspiracies then he loses through personal fortuna he gets sick and suffers the loss Human Freedom vs Determinism Determinism Too many cause and effect relationship currently and over history for true freedom Never let any impulse let you lose your cool and the focus on the goal It is safer to act at anything than to act at nothing Fortune is a woman you must seduce and bend her to your will Moses Maidicnides If you accept that god is all knowing and chooses to let you do you do wrong God s knowledge and power is infinite which we don t understand Code of laws of repentance Raises the of cosmic determinism vs human freedom We don t understand this it s metaphorical not literal We are finite and he is infinite he is everything we are not that is what makes him God Human freedom must guide our lives Machiavelli is an anti systematic philosopher The philosophy