1001Philosophers

Niccolo Machiavelli vs Plato

Plato's Republic and Machiavelli's Prince are the two great founding texts of Western political philosophy on opposite sides of an ancient-modern divide. Machiavelli's project was a deliberate break from the Platonic tradition that had dominated political philosophy for nearly two thousand years.

At a glance

Niccolo MachiavelliPlato
Dates1469 – 1527428 BC – 348 BC
NationalityItalianGreek
EraModernAncient
Movements Political Philosophy, Renaissance Platonism, Ancient Greek Philosophy
Profile Niccolo Machiavelli → Plato →

Where they agree

Both held that the analysis of political power is among the most serious tasks of philosophy, both took the relation between rulers and the ruled as a central problem, and both wrote in literary forms designed to reach a wide educated audience. Machiavelli read Plato closely, and his rejection of Platonic political philosophy is a knowing one.

Where they disagree

Plato's Republic builds the just city around philosopher-rulers whose authority rests on their knowledge of the eternal Forms — particularly the Form of the Good — and treats political philosophy as continuous with metaphysics and ethics. Machiavelli abandoned the metaphysical and ethical framework altogether: political analysis must begin from how human beings actually behave in conditions of competing power, not from how they ought to behave under conditions of perfect knowledge. Where Plato treats political philosophy as the descent of the philosopher from contemplation of the good, Machiavelli treats it as the disenchanted analysis of what works. The dispute is the canonical instance of the ancient-versus-modern divide in political thought.

Representative quotes

Niccolo Machiavelli

  • “It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”

    I say that every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel. He must, however, take care not to misuse this mercifulness. ... A prince, therefore, must not mind incurring the charge of cruelty for the purpose of keeping his subjects united and confident; for, with a very few examples, he will be more merciful than those who, from excess of tenderness, allow disorders to arise, from

  • “Princes who have done great deeds have held their good faith of little account.”

    How laudable it is for a prince to keep good faith and live with integrity, and not with astuteness, every one knows. Still the experience of our times shows those princes to have done great things who have had little regard for good faith, and have been able by astuteness to confuse men's brains, and who have ultimately overcome those who have made loyalty their foundation. You must know, then, t

  • “The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”

    A variant translation of: "And the first opinion which one forms of a prince, and of his understanding, is by observing the men he has around him." - The Prince (1513), Ch. 22

Plato

  • “The beginning is the most important part of the work.”

    The beginning in every task is the chief thing.

  • “Philosophy begins in wonder.”

    155d, The Dialogues of Plato , Volume 3, 1871, p. 377

  • “I shall assume that your silence gives consent .”

    435b

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