Machiavelli, the first disputed man in our modern history, andhis works, the most argued writings in his and our times, shouldbe reviewed again now. Here we attempt to understand what he thought,what he wanted to solve and what he had projected, and to find outhis great contribution to contemporary political thoughts andpractices, especially in the aspect of political ideal andconstruction of national sovereignties.In Machiavelli's mind, morals must be practiced, that is tosay, whether morality is good should be on the basis of whetherdeeds is great. After inspecting his primary works, such as THEPRINCE, THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE, THE DISCOURSES ON LIVY, etc., wecan conclude that he has secular perception, not religiousperception, on politics. In his view, Pope and papal power had beenout of the times and must get away from the arena of politics. Fromthen on, the polities ought to be secular, and the new-built mundaneStates should be proper, just, unique and the highest authority.There are two logical sequences of thinking on kinds of westernpolitical ideals: one is the Route of Plato, the other is the Routeof Aristotle. The former indicates that politics is considered inthe ken of ethics, and the latter expresses that ethics should bereviewed in the rap of politics. Machiavelli' s political thoughtfollowed and developed the latter. He made a further thought thatethics could afford the best Services for politics: the good morals were conducive to the built of political order and forested theliberation spirit of citizens which is helpful for the built ofpolitical freedoms.Machiavelli has a belief in human nature that each man has twosorts of instincts: expansionist inclination and anti-enslavedinclination. The two inclinations reflect conservation of orderand preservation of freedom from the visual threshold of humanpolitical practice. He therefore adhere to it that the State power(or sovereignty) can put everything in good order and the justicelay in the power which has great moral context. What's more,Machiavelli supposes that a good law be born in the conflict andbalance amongst the powers.As a matter of fact, we can conclude a seeming contrary attitudefrom Machiavelli' s writings that he paid to human naturepessimistically yet to human politics optimistically when heconstructed his thinking over the built of newpolitics. Theattitude is understood when the ideal of his practical politicsunderstood. It is his thoughts on the practical politics that theethics lives off politics, and those great political deeds can showoutstanding virtues of mankind by themselves.In a word, Machiavelli' s thoughts give a political blueprintof the new-built polity of modern national sovereignty (or States).He points out the key problem of politics: how the sovereign stateto be buil't and to be kept. He solves the relationship betweenethics and politics in the political context of secular andnational States. In other words, he is the first man to researchmodern politics wholly, and his works is a milestone which marksthe beginning of modern politics science. |