POLS 2900 Chapter Notes -Intellectual Virtue, The Good Life, Habituation
13 Oct 2013
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Document Summary
The contrast between the two thinkers on the question of virtue and vice is quite stark. We get a sense of this by comparing especially machiavelli s account of those things for which men and especially princes are praised or blamed in ch. 15-19 of the prince. There machiavelli makes clear to his intelligent readers, i. e. those who understand not simply the occasional necessity for vice in politics, but a radical overturning of the aristotelian conception of virtue. Machiavelli virtue becomes a means to the highest goal of politics: peace (understood more narrowly as safety) and prosperity. While it is true that aristotle discusses virtue more fully in the ethics than in the politics, it is also true that the goal of politics in the politics remains the good life, which requires virtue. In fact, aristotle s discussion of the best regime as well as his polity are all informed by a concern with the promotion of virtue.
