Every Good Morning

One way that genius with language works means coming up with ways of seeing that no one has thought of and making a metaphor* as a vehicle of that new vision. Shakespeare does this effortlessly, or so it seems in my experience. What does effortless imply? I think it means that for Shakespeare these images surfaced quickly from the flow of thought involved in his writing process. Maybe he asked […]

  Machiavelli’s view of humanity brings to mind this description of The Inferno : “… Virgil’s warning to Dante when traveling in Hell: if he is to see rightly, pity is forbidden. The eye that wishes to see human nature complete must be unclouded by tears, unclouded even by allegiance.” * In this context of pitilessness, we see that Machiavelli has little faith in human nature: “We can say this of most […]

One can draw out Machiavelli’s assumptions about human beings based on his analysis of power and his real-world examples. We possess a desire for freedom that is intrinsic and therefore a capacity for rebellion that is equally intrinsic. We are naturally corrupt. No one and nothing can perfect us. In theological terms, we are all sinners. Some may sin more, some may sin less, but no one is without sin. […]

The Prince is a treatise on political power – how to claim it, how to keep it, how to defeat one’s enemies. It is also a book written to please a prince. Its tone is one of servility, for it was written to an actual Prince to curry favor and to secure some scrap of power and a living for Machiavelli. It is a book about how a sovereign can […]