A Philosophical Study on the Concept of ‘Political Man’ with Reference to Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’

Abstract

Machiavelli has tried to describe power politics through The Prince. It was written in 1513, as an answer to the political situation, which was there in Italy in the 15th century. He wanted to prove that political judgments are detached from the moral judgments. Political judgments are based on gaining power and moral judgments are based on good or virtue. As it has mentioned by him, there are no moral interventions in the state affairs. Therefore, one of the main objectives of The prince is that introducing a ways in which that is used to make a prince to break moral judgments from politics. The objective of this study is to examine the concept of ‘Political Man’ in Machiavelli’s The Prince. Textual analysis has been used as the methodology of this study. Machiavelli’s The Prince has emphasized the practical aspect of politics. When it comes to the contemporary politics in the world, the way that Machiavelli has guided a prince can be seen in the characters of the politicians. Sometimes we can see that they are using the principles of Machiavelli in practical sense. Finally, it can be stated that according to Machiavelli, “Politics is neither a thing based on ethics, nor a part of it” as he separated the morality from the field of politics.