Final paper purposal
P1. In The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, a guide to long term power is given, through the medium of history itself.
“As I say above, he who does not lay his foundations beforehand can perhaps through great wisdom and energy lay them afterword, though he does so with trouble for the architect and danger to the building”
P2. History has proven to repeat itself, one example of which Niccolo describes is Duke Valentino’s story.
P3. History is the unfolding of events that can be used as a guide to understand the flow of power that Machiavelli is discussing.
“Hence, if a prince wishes to maintain himself, he must learn how to be not good, and to use that ability or not as is required”
Counter: “If everyone were good and contributed to one another, we could maintain a growing civilization with a kind and honest prince that would share resources fairly and create a powerful history”
P4. [Rebuttal] True freedom is synonymous with chaos, because to be truly free, you can’t be controlled, and Machiavelli shows through history how this can never be the case.
“After this, he waited for a good chance to wipe out the Orsini leaders, having scattered those of the Colonna family; such a chance came to him well and he used it better”
P5. Human History contains thousands of years of information, and if you construct a story under the right context you can essentially explain anything using it as a medium or channel.
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