Niccolo Machiavelli and Moral Indifference

Question 1

In his most famous work “The Prince” Machiavelli…?

Answer 1

eliminated theological and moral argument and took the secular state for granted and inquired scientifically into its behavior

Question 2

Why did Machiavelli’s name become synonymous with the devil?

Answer 2

largely because of his argument that evil means were sometime necessary to achieve desired ends [on occasion]

Question 3

Machiavelli had little interest in…?

Answer 3

spiritual matters, and none in theological ones

Question 4

Why was religion necessary/helpful?

Answer 4

it was helpful in keeping order, controlling people and strengthening the will of soldiers

Question 5

For Machiavelli, the world of politics is?

Answer 5

real and needs no philosophical or theological explanation

Question 6

Machiavelli views pagan virtues as?

Answer 6

more relevant alternatives to Christian ones

Question 7

Ideals based on impossibilities, on imaginings and speculation need to be replaced with?

Answer 7

possible ideals based on effectual truth tested by experience

Question 8

Adaptability to circumstance is more important than?

Answer 8

adherence to a single, simple ideal

Question 9

What did Machiavelli say was the purpose of politics?

Answer 9

to preserve and increase political power itself. the standard by which he judges it is its success in doing this

Question 10

He believed that government depends largely on?

Answer 10

force and craft

Question 11

He writes almost wholly on?

Answer 11

the mechanics of government

• the mans by which states may be made strong
• policies by which they can expand their power
• the errors that lead to their decay or overthrow

Question 12

He divorces political and military measures almost wholly from?

Answer 12

religious, moral and social considerations, except where the latter affect political expedients

Question 13

How does Machiavelli treat those policies that are cruel, faithless or lawless?

Answer 13

with indifference, though he is well aware that such qualities may react upon its political success

Question 14

“He is not so much immoral as non-moral” what is meant by this?

Answer 14

he simply abstracts politics from other considerations and writes of it as if it were an end in itself

Question 15

While Machiavelli sanctioned the use of immoral means by a ruler to gain an end, he never doubted…?

Answer 15

that moral corruption in a people makes good government impossible

Question 16

He was interested in a single end and indifferent to all others. What was this end?

Answer 16

Political power

Question 17

Neither is power nor in possessions is there any normal limit to?

Answer 17

human desires.

Question 18

The natural scarcity of Power and possessions cause men to?

Answer 18

always be in a condition of strife and competition which threatens open anarchy unless restrained

Question 19

The power of the ruler is built upon?

Answer 19

the very imminence of anarchy

Question 20

Security is possibly only when?

Answer 20

government is strong

Question 21

Men are generally bad, and so the wise ruler…?

Answer 21

constructs his policies on this assumption

Question 22

He writes about nothing and thinks about nothing except…?

Answer 22

politics, statecraft and the art of war

Question 23

What was his interest in social, economic or religious questions?

Answer 23

he had none in them except as they bore on politics

Question 24

Machiavelli saw the state as an…?

Answer 24

organized force, supreme in its own territory and pursuing conscious policy of aggrandizement in its relations\s with other states

Question 25

Why is Machiavelli’s philosophy viewed as superficial?

Answer 25

because it attributes successes and failures of politics chiefly to the astuteness or ineptitude of the statesman

Question 26

Machiavelli reduced moral, religious and economic factors in a society as?

Answer 26

mere forces which a clever politician can turn to the advantage of the state