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prince - Coggle Diagram
prince
agathocles is not born into a wealthy powerful family. low-class. becomes a soldier and is very capable. courageous. strategically and tactically clever. charismatic.
rises through ranks and decides to become a prince of syracuse. syracuse is a republic. betrays his allies so he doesn't become disempowered.
whoever might consider the actions and virtue of agathocles, if you consider these actions and virtues you will see that nothing or little can be attributed to fortune
if you have a scale that allows you to measure the actions and virtue of an individual, the top of the scale is those like moses. -> rely on little or nothing in the way of fortune, only the opportunity is a way of fortune. borchea is lower on the scale because he relies on the fortune of his birth. agathocles is closer to moses than borchea
these modes can enable one to acquire political power but not glory. to acquire glory is to acquire moral excellence. agathocles cannot possibly expect to gain glory for his actions.
for if one considers the virtue of agathocles, and the greatness of his spirit in enduring and overcoming adversity, one does not see why he has to be judged inferior to any most excellent captain. nonetheless, his savage cruelty and inhumanity together with his innumerable crimes do not permit him to be celebrated among the most excellent men. thus, one cannot attribute to fortune or to virtue what he achieved without either.
the way we think about and talk about excellence, greatness of human action is ambiguous and we need to understand that there is a difference between moral virtue and vice, and political virtue and vice. greatness can be understood morally it can be understood politically, but those are not identical. morally excellent != politically excellent. politically excellent != morally excellence. agathocles is politically excellent without moral excellence. cannot find greatness if the judgment is moral. if the scale is political, he can be measured as being high on the political scale.
everything that agathocles did allowed him to maintain support of the people. benefit the people, not to take cruel unmerciful actions that would be judged morally wrong unless it was necessary to do so.
arguing that political virtue requires the ruler be a populous. ensure that he gains and maintains the support of the people.
every society is a class society. has elite and non elite. elite believe that they should rule. the people want not to be ruled. a successful prince has to win over the people by ensuring then that he will protect and defend against elite who want to rule over people rather than leave them along free to live lives as the choose.
and as one examines their actions and why, one does not see that they had anything else from fortune than the opportunity that gave them the material enabling them to introduce any form they please.
yet one cannot call it virtue to kill one's citizens (agathocles did), betray one's friends (agathocles did). he was without faith (unfaithful -> not trustworthy). without mercy. without religion.
ruler must be able to maintain his citizens support in order for them to accept the new order of rules
must be popular among the people in order to be successful. a prince can be elected or appointed by vote not using fortune or virtue.
elite believe they should rule over people. the people do not want to be ruled, to be riles is to be oppressed (not able to be free). in order to be free they must not be oppressed by the ruled so they don't want a ruler.
the attitude of people is to not want political life at all. a price must understand this attitude of the people. the people desire to be protected from outside forces and not to be oppressed by the elite.
the people want a leader to go against the elite. the elite does not have to be rooted in wealth, but also education elite, family elite, business elite
he is like the sketch artist. he has knowledge of the whole of political life unlike prince and people who know of one another and lack self-knowledge. both are partial and limited. the political philosophy is not locked into a partial limited perspective but can understand both perspectives a part of the whole.
b realized there were two dangers when he brought in romerio. by empowering romerio he would violate the rule of power. he worried that romerios cruel path he took to dissolve the corruptness, the people would come to hate b. to deflect hatred from himself and avoid violating the power rule, he made a criminal court and had him tried and executed.
political and moral virtue must not be intertwined because one can be sufficient in one and not the other.