Aspects of deception in Machiavelli

Abstract

This thesis attempts to re-state in a simple way what Leo Strauss has already said in his book "Thoughts On Machiavelli": Machiavelli intentionally deceives his reader in order to teach and convert him to immorality. The moral criterion of the work is the same as that used by Strauss in his assessment of Machiavelli's teachings: The Old Testament and in particular the Ten Commandment Law which condemns murder. The thesis rejects the idea that evident mistakes in Machiavelli's writings are a result of poor scholarship. The mistakes are a part of Machiavelli's deceptive teaching method. Deception is essential to Machiavelli's whole philosophy and teaching. The deceptive relationship between Machiavelli and his reader and the prince (political ruler) and his subject is similar. Both Machiavelli and the prince must appear to be something which neither of them are in reality. Not only is Machiavelli a teacher of princes on the art of survival, he teaches those who will pay attention and who deserve to be princes, how they may attain power. Therefore, both for those who deserve to be princes and for those who hold power and plan to keep it, deception is of prime importance. The answer to the question of who deserves to be a prince, will be determined by the extent to which a pupil of Machiavelli's absorbs and applies Machiavelli's teachings. Machiavelli is only writing in order to convert a few people out of all his many readers. The few readers who are converted to Machiavelli will be the only ones out of all his readers who deserve to be political rulers. I call these people the "few deserving readers". These readers must be converted gradually since an abrupt confrontation with existing beliefs could drive away potential converts. Machiavelli's difficulty is that he doesn't know beforehand who his deserving readers are and in this respect he is a democrat, all of his readers are treated alike. The whole point of Machiavelli's efforts is to convert readers away from belief in morality. It is this very morality which imposes upon Machiavelli the necessity of deception. Every one of Machiavelli's readers is regarded by him as an enemy, in the sense that they think of morality first and expediency second. Machiavelli's efforts are directed at obtaining a reversal in the moral priorities of his readers, for example, from a reader's belief that murder is wrong into accepting that murder is justified in order to obtain and maintain political power. In the relationship between the political ruler or prince and his subjects, the prince must deceive the majority of his subjects into believing that his beliefs and theirs are the same. While he must appear to venerate peace above everything else, in reality he must venerate war above all, since his survival depends upon it. Those few subjects who penetrate the deceptions of the prince represent a threat to his survival. The threat is realised if they can communicate their knowledge to the majority of deceived subjects. The prince, for survival's sake, must eliminate the few perceptive subjects. The most important deception perpetrated by the prince, is in religion. Deception in religion means being deceived in what you believe to be of highest value. It is important that the prince appear to be religious and worship peace. What Machiavelli hides is that the religion which the prince must really practice is the religion of war which is exemplified by Romulus founding Rome by killing his brother Remus. Machiavelli's problem is that he must communicate the unmentionable - things which men would not have dared to speak aloud much less communicate to others. For example, that to obtain power any action is justified. This is the lesson to be learned from Romulus's murder of Remus. The success of Machiavelli's deception can be seen in the fact that many recent writers have come to accept fundamentals of Machiavellian teachings, such as the idea that in politics ordinary morality does not apply or that there can be milder forms of Machiavellianism.