Human Nature by Machiavelli

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (3 may 1469- 21 June 1527) in Florence, Italy. He was an Italian historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist and writer based in Florence during the Renaissance. He was a founder of modern political science, and more specifically political ethics.

Human Nature

The political ideas of Machiavelli are the outcome of his grossly pessimistic conception of human nature. In his view, man is a strange mixture of weakness, folly and knavery: he is hit only to be hoodwinked and ruled over. Selfishness and egoism are the cardinal motivating forces of human conduct. Deceitfulness, cowardice, avarice, fickleness and ungratefulness are the chief qualities of his personality. Like beasts man is driven away by the forces of fear, lost for power, avarice and cunningness. Man is more prone to evil than to good and as such whenever a choice is given to him to pick and choose between good and bad, he resorts to the later. In his discourses Machiavelli endorses:

“Those who have been present at any deliberative assemblies of man will have observed how erroneous their opinions often are; and, in fact unless they are directed by superior men, they apt to be contrary to all reasons”

It is clear that Machiavelli presents a very dismal and contemptuous picture of human nature. He tells us that one must take it for granted that all men are wicked that they always give vent to the malignity that is in their minds whenever opportunity so offers. It is a matter of ordinary prudence; he carries his point further that man never do well unless necessity drives them to do.
 

Similar approach of Machiavelli is contained in his prince where he says that men are ungrateful, voluble dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger and covetous of gain. It becomes clear from the tenor of his approach that in Machiavelli’s firm view, men and animals motivated primarily by self-interest, personal aggrandizement, fear, vanity and the lost for power. Only by shrewdness and a calculating ruthlessness can the individual hope to cope with his environment and satisfy his appetites and instincts.

Characteristics of Human Nature:

1. Human nature is mixed with selfishness.
2. Human nature is egoism.
3. Human nature is deception.
4. Human nature is course.
5. Human nature is weak and knavery.
6. Human nature is fully.
7. Human nature is forced by love.
8. Human nature is dismissal.
9. Human nature is contempt.
10. Human nature is malignity.

He says one cannot have expect help from others if he had not help in previously”. Men are motivated by the inner base one is turned by showiness and calculate satisfaction before any step on next.

In a powerful analysis of Machiavelli’s pessimistic psychology, McCoy suggests that the animal and rational nature of man as two unrelated principles of action. By his animal nature, man acts like a beast and by his rational nature, he acts like a man.

Such a study of Machiavelli’s theory of human nature leads to following important conclusions

1. The cause of the origin of society, state and government less embedded in the need for security against aggressions of the strong over the weak.
2. The success and failure of a ruler should be measured in the light of security arrangements afforded by the state. 
3. The motives behind the sanction of political authority are selfishness and egoism and, as such, the ruler must care for the ends, while means are always honorable.
4. Politics cannot be aligned with ethics or religions; when the people cannot do any good unless they are forced to do so, the ruler need not count on the social and moral virtues of the people.
5. Force should be used by the state in a ruthless manner as it is only through its application that the evil propensities of the people can be placed under effective control.

Criticisms

1. Machiavelli’s theory of human nature is extremely pernicious.
2. His political philosophy based on the principles of universal egoism and wickedness made his name an anathema.
3. It is certain that he took a thoroughly wrong view of human nature; he was unmindful of the fact that if a man is not wholly good, he is not wholly bad either.
4. Prof. Jaszi “ at the same time by the passionate and enthusiastic glorification of political crime he must bear the responsibility of having made from the diffused crimes of isolated princely criminal, a compact philosophical doctrine which corrupted public opinion in many parts of the world and envenomed still more an unscrupulous political practice.