Renaissance Humanism
...setting a noble example. He should be focused on how he "seems" and not how he truly "is". Machiavelli believes that a prince's actions and the consequences of these actions are based halfway on Fortune and halfway on free will of the prince, and Fortune favors the young and impetuous to the old and cautious. Therefore, a prince must be spontaneous in his actions and personal affairs. Another issue of personal affairs that Machiavelli addresses in The Prince is the prince's decision of which personal advisors to choose, or which ministers. Ministers are the first impression of the prince to a community, so a prince must choose wisely. Clearly, Machiavelli and More have a very different outlook on their own perfect world and how each should be mapped out and run. Secondly, there is the issue of secularism. While Utopia discusses religion to a much larger extent than The Prince, religion is still apparent in The Prince. Machiavelli seems to view the Bible as another history book rather than a book of spirituality and religion; however, the Bible is rarely referred to at all. A prince is supposed to "appear religious and faithful", yet not to practice peace and good faith. In great contrast, Thomas More's society in Utopia is living and relying powerfully on religion. Although they are allowed to practice different religions, all of the practiced religions are monotheistic. There are very few priests for these religions, however, and woman are rarely priests, because priests were considered the most moral and religious citizens in the community. Utopians believed in an afterlife, and an immoral soul. The lack of religion in Machiavelli's piece probably has to do with the personal beliefs of Machiavelli himself and his ideas and visions of a perfect ruler and a perfect prince. Change in the two communities was also very different. In Utopia, the society is very planned, and yet very open to change; however, in The Prince, change relies powerfully on Fortune, and can only change somewhat. The community needs to get ready and prepare for the change. The third characteristic of Renaissance Humanism is the Historical self-consciousness of each book. Historical self-consciousness is the awareness of one’s position in the course of history, that there are patterns in history, and that these patterns can change (Lecture 20, 11/8/01). In Thomas More’s Utopia, reason, nature and virtue are the cause of the community’s beliefs, brought about by great thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle and Socrates. Utopians believed that the soul was immortal and needed to be in harmony with all its parts in order to be considered “good”. On the other hand, the community in The Prince relied mainly on Roman glory, or “vir-tu”. This “vir-tu” includes characteristics such as dignity, civic duty, determination, “genius”, courage, and being well-rounded in education and accomplishments. The community used many examples from Rome, and learned from these patterns. Finally, Humanism in each of these works differed very greatly. Humanism is the belief in the importance and inherent worth of humanity. It is the promotion of studying human culture, and the human experience. It is the emphasis on classical studies. (Lecture 20, 11/8/01) Humanism in Utopia is almost exactly the opposite of Humanism in The Prince. In Utopia, the citizens are totally against war; they detest it. They use propaganda to get the enemies to fight within their armies so that there is little bloodshed. They hire mercenaries to fight, and they like to use their minds and their cunningness rather than brute strength. The Utopians believe in the philosophy of the nature of happiness. They have certain pleasures they are allowed and not allowed to enjoy: true and counterfeit pleasures. In contrast, in The Prince, Machiavelli thinks that the prince should only be concerned with war. ...