Machiavelli totally rejected Boethius and classical philosophy, in that he feels Lady Fortuna can be manipulated and “false happiness” is actually true happiness. The governing objective in the ancient-modern debate is what role does morality and virtue play in the conduct of ones political and private life. The purpose of this essay is to explain the five main themes in this debate and then I will compare and contrast the positions of Boethius and Machiavelli.
The first theme in this debate is morality and politics. According to Machiavelli, these need to be separated, because the Greeks and Christians were wrong about the objective truth. They were also wrong about he definition of human nature. Machiavelli believed there is no divine order to the cosmos or the world. To find order, according to Machiavelli, there needs to be force and violence. As Machiavelli said in The Prince (1532), “Fortune is a woman who to be kept under must be beaten and roughly handled; and we see that she suffers herself to be more readily mastered by those who so treat her than by those who are more timid.” Since he did not believe in a divine power, he believed there could be no order or purpose in the universe. Boethius believed that a rational order does exist, contrary to Machiavelli’s belief. Machiavelli believed that morality, law and order are human inventions. Machiavelli rejected the idea that you have to be a good moral person to be a good ruler. Contrarily, according to Machiavelli, the greater you are moral the least you will succeed and to be an effective ruler you must learn to be a bad person. To Machiavelli the world is anarchic; and morality and politics must be separated.
The second theme is the purpose of politics. Classical philosophy or ancient philosophy believed the purpose of politics is the preservation of it, to pursue justice and make citizens better people. Machiavelli or modern philosophy also believed in the preservation of the state, however he believed that politics has nothing to do with making someone a better person. He believed that once you establish order you must keep it by any means necessary.
The third theme is that politics is a technical activity. To rule effectively, Machiavelli says, you need science not philosophy or religion. With STEM you can learn why physical nature is the way it is, instead of believing the Homeric tradition that are not true. Once people realize this, they can reject the idea of a divine presence and create new ideas about morality.
The fourth theme is redefining human nature. By rejecting the classical notion of a philosophical and theological approach, Machiavelli needs to create a new account of virtue – a new type of thinking and acting. People are anarchic and inherently bad so the old version of nature does not exist anymore. Ancient philosophy believed that human nature is inherently good, because everyone can be rational and can be educated. Modern philosophy or Machiavelli believed that people are not inherently good, because God is dead and there is no moral foundation to the universe. The modern debate argues that humans are naturally acquisitive and their love for things will never end. Machiavelli says in The Prince (1532), “The wish to acquire is no doubt a natural and common sentiment, and when men attempt things within their power, they will always be praised rather than blamed. But when they persist in attempts that are beyond their power, mishaps and blame ensues.” Acquisition becomes the most important term in the modern debate. The most superior form of human art, according to Machiavelli is politics. Machiavelli is bringing back the muses that lady philosophy took away from Boethius. In classical philosophy these muses are false happiness and they come and go randomly depending on Lady Fortuna’s wheel. The political actors job is to play a role. You mustn’t let your emotions affect the way you perceive the world, according to Machiavelli. The actors must be constantly making new possibilities and must be creative.
The last theme is that politics is not natural. According to the modern debate, politics is an invention and it had to be created. Undoing an already built upon politics can be dangerous, but Machiavelli knows that violence and force will coerce people to obey. Since it wasn’t God who drove peoples actions, Machiavelli believed it was the love for acquisition.
Boethius’s conception of human nature was that we are rational. Boethius is committed to a platonic conception of reason. To him, reason will not only lead you to the truth, but it can take you to a different time in place. Reason connects you to a condition of being that is not influx. He believed that reason is the only thing that humans possess. It is not a gift from Lady Fortuna. Reason is what can make you self-sufficient and ultimately happiness. Reason is the only thing that can never be taken away. When he was sent to prison he had forgotten for a little while, but remembered that we are rational and mortal. He had forgotten that an objective truth that is timeless and changeless exists; and since we are rational we can find that truth.
Boethius believed that there are concrete consequences to our lives and how we conduct ourselves derives from happiness. His concept of fortune comes from a goddess named Lady Fortuna. Lady Fortuna plays no favorites when giving good and bad fortune. She spins her wheel of fortune and wherever it lands is what you get. She can give and take away randomly; and everything is on loan to us from Lady Fortuna. Wealth, power, beauty, fame, sexual pleasures and other muses, all belong to Lady Fortuna. In The Consolation Of Philosophy, Lady Fortuna says, “You have no cause to be angry with me: I have done you no violence. Wealth, honors and the like are all under my jurisdiction … when I come they come and when I go they go.” We cannot control the outcomes of our fortune according to Boethius. All the muses create false happiness. Since all fortune is random and owned by Lady Fortuna, fortune cannot be the reason for happiness. Things come and go; and since we can’t control it, it shouldn’t lead to our happiness. He believed that self-sufficiency is the key to true happiness. Self-sufficiency reduces dependence on material things.
Machiavelli redefines human nature and completely rejects past thought. He believed that a rational order does not exist and people are not inherently good. He didn’t believe there was a God, so to him the world is anarchic and there is no moral foundation. To Machiavelli people are born acquisitive and wanted to have as much as they can. People are praised for having a lot of wealth or fame. He believed that people are not good and they can break promises. His conception of virtue is very different than the classical concept. He didn’t believe that having virtue meant to be good and moral. He rebuilt the concept that action and thought are consistent with moral principles. All politics is artificial and his new archetype was one of consistently making new possibilities and always being creative. His new way of thinking destroyed the distinction of man and animal. The new knowledge was that we got be animals at times. You got to become ferocious like a lion and annihilate your enemies with no remorse. He redefined reasoning as being the Fox who is always hunted. His new conception required constantly analyzing your enemies and making sure you make the right move first or else it will lead to death.
Machiavelli’s idea on fortune or Lady Fortuna was very different than Boethius. He agreed that she was a goddess and that she had all the powerful things we want. However, he thought that she does play favorites and she can be engaged. He believed that you can manipulate Lady Fortuna so that she lessons the bad things and increases the good things. We can draft our own destiny. To Machiavelli, extraordinary happiness is all around us, but some times you have to be violent and then you can take it. Machiavelli says, “One day we see a prince prospering and the next overthrown, without detecting any change in his nature or character. This I believe comes chiefly from a cause … that a prince who rests wholly on fortune is ruined when she changes.” Machiavelli believed that people are always going to try and gain power through taking it. Machiavelli thought Lady Fortuna was nature and because we have STEM we can manipulate her and control her. As a result, you can predict and prepare for bad fortune. He agreed with Boethius that Lady Fortuna is a lady, however his mentality of her shifts drastically. He thought since she is a woman, she can be seduced and might actually like it. That she wants to be courted and chased. She knows she has all the things we want and knows we’re coming for it. Machiavelli had a transformative approach to morality, human nature, virtue, happiness and fortune. He paved the road for the corrupt emperors and leaders that rule this world. He separated morality from justice and knew the only way to acquire power was by taking it – with no remorse.
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