A Comparison Of Machiavelli And Hobbes Politics Essay

A Comparison Of Machiavelli And Hobbes Politics Essay Machiavelli and Hobbes were the most important political philosophers of early modernity. Politically, modernitys earliest phase starts with  Niccolà ³ Machiavellis works which openly rejected the medieval and Aristotelian style of analyzing politics by comparison ideas about how things should be, in favor of realistic analysis of how things really are. He also proposed that an aim of politics is to control one’s own chance or fortune, and that relying upon providence actually leads to evil. Machiavelli argued, for example, that violent divisions within political communities are unavoidable, but can also be a source of strength which law-makers and leaders should account for and even encourage in some ways.   [ 1 ]    Machiavelli’s recommendations were sometimes influential upon kings and princes, but eventually came to be seen as favoring free republics over monarchies. Machiavelli in turn influenced  Francis Bacon,  Marchamont Needham,  Harrington,  Jo hn Milton,  David Hume, and many others.   [ 2 ]    Important modern political doctrines which stem from the new Machiavellian realism include  Mandeville’s influential proposal that â€Å"Private Vices by the dexterous Management of a skilful Politician may be turned into Public Benefits† (the last sentence of his  Fable of the Bees), and also the doctrine of a constitutional â€Å"separation of powers† in government, first clearly proposed by  Montesquieu. Both these principles are enshrined within the  constitutions  of most  modern democracies. It has been observed that while Machiavelli’s realism saw a value to war and political violence, his lasting influence has been â€Å"tamed† so that useful conflict was deliberately converted as much as possible to formalized political struggles and the economic â€Å"conflict† encouraged between free, private enterprises.   [ 3 ]    As I said in the first paragraph of this e ssay I will start with  Thomas Hobbes, attempts were made to use the methods of the new modern physical sciences, as proposed by  Bacon  and  Descartes, applied to humanity and politics. Notable attempts to improve upon the methodological approach of Hobbes include those of  Locke,  Spinoza,  Giambattista Vico  and Rousseau.  David Hume  made what he considered to be the first proper attempt at trying to apply Bacon’s scientific method to political subjects, rejecting some aspects of the approach of Hobbes.   [ 4 ]    Modernist republicanism openly influenced the foundation of republics during the  Dutch Revolt  (1568-1609),  English Civil War  (1642-1651),  American Revolution  (1775-1783) and the  French Revolution  (1789-1799 A second phase of modernist political thinking begins with Rousseau, who questioned the natural rationality and sociality of humanity and proposed that  human nature  was much more malleable than had been pr eviously thought. By this logic, what makes a good political system or a good man is completely dependent upon the chance path whole person has taken over history. This thought influenced the political (and aesthetic) thinking of  Immanuel Kant,  Edmund Burke  and others and led to a critical review of modernist politics. On the conservative side, Burke argued that this understanding encouraged caution and avoidance of radical change. However more ambitious movements also developed from this insight into human  culture, initially  Romanticism  and  Historicism, and eventually both the  Communism  of  Karl Marx, and the modern forms of  nationalism  inspired by the  French Revolution, including, in one extreme, the German  Nazi  movement.