Did Niccolo Machiavelli affirm that “the end justifies the means”?

The notorious phrase that the end justifies funds in a variety of discussions is often attributed to the thinker of the Renaissance of Niccolo Machiavelli. We checked if this statement is in his writings.

The expression “the end justifies the means” is often associated with the Italian thinker. For example, this phrase Medicated In the subtitles of the book of Boris Tennenbaum about Niccolo Machiavelli, and on the website of the magazine "Amateur" - in the name Articles About his life. At the same time, disagreements and doubts about who, when and why for the first time formulated this principle may be no less than arguments in favor of its truth or falsity.

The wording “the end justifies the means” in any of the works of Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) we could not find. In his most famous treatise "Sovereign" he Writes: "Sovereign, if he wants to maintain power, must acquire the ability to retreat from good and use this skill, depending on the need." But in the "Reasoning of the first decade of Titus Libya" the thinker Curses The opposite idea: "It is better to live a private life than to become a monarch at the cost of the death of many people."

At the same time, the widespread attitude to the political thought of Machiavelli, as a rule, is quite one -sided and does not take into account the context of his time. We can say that the thinker was a supporter of the notorious stability, but in his historical era it was exactly what was so lacked by the fragmented Italian states, constantly enjoying among themselves and at the same time mired in internal intrigues. According to Machiavelli, the purpose or mission of the sovereign (yes, taken beyond the scope of everyday morality) is not to take power and hold it at all costs in their own interests, but still use this power for the good of the state and citizens. If the sovereign and it is permissible to be outside of morality, then this is not just because he is the sovereign, but due to the fact that his subjects are also living people with their vices and interests, not examples of infallible virtue.

Machiavelli lived in a difficult time, when it would be difficult (and even strange) to maintain cloudless optimism regarding human nature. And the significance of his thoughts is not that he allegedly proposed a theoretical justification, why politicians are permissible to be unprincipled and immoral, but that he, in fact, was in his field the first realist, ready to soberly talk about sovereigns and their subjects, types of power and ways to withhold it, and not build utopian models of how everything could be. Almost all political thought to Machiavelli was devoted to this. He I called “Follow the truth is not imaginary, but real - unlike those many who portrayed the republics and the state, which no one really knew or saw.” If you attribute to Machiavelli any phrase that is actually not in his works, it would be better if it sounded like “politics for politics”. Because his significant contribution to the development of Western thought was precisely in the fact that he was the first to separate the sphere of political from religion and morality and began to talk about real-existing states and societies instead of imagining some ideal ones.

It is symbolic that sometimes the expression "the end justifies the means" attributed Living later Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) - another thinker who adhered to pessimistic views on the nature of man and saw the role of a strong state in the salvation of people from themselves. This is also a statement Binded With the younger contemporary of Machiavelli Ignatius Loyola (1491–1556), the founder of the Jesuit Order, as well as a member of this order Antonio Escobar-i-Mendos. But used This attribution is more likely critics and opponents of the Jesuits.

In fact, the statement about the goal and means to the time of Machiavelli and Loyola (XV - XVI centuries) was far from new. At the same time, it is not surprising that they remembered him precisely in the Renaissance, when the attention of people was drawn to ancient texts. Some attributed The phrase “end justifies the means” of Ovid, but if you look at a specific quote from his “herooid”, then he also Used Sentence, rather obviously disagreing with it: “The outcome serves as an excuse. Let him not know success / the one who is used to judging by success! ” But Ovid was not the first. An even earlier source with this idea counts "Electra" of the Athenian playwright of the 5th century BC. e. Sophocles. However, in the Russian translation of the tragedy, we We find: “The evil plan leads to the outcome of the evil”, which is also not too similar to an excuse. Yes, and do not lose sight of the fact that the tragedy itself tells about the children who think the murder of the mother out of revenge for the murder of their father previously committed. So this, perhaps, is not the most successful and relevant for the present the source of life wisdom.

Thus, the phrase “the end justifies the means”, like many other widely used expressions, is attributed incorrectly. There were authors who did not write this, although perhaps they would have agreed to some extent with a similar idea (Machiavelli). There were also those who used a similar phrase, but, as follows from the context, obviously did not agree with her (Ovid), and those who were attributed to their critics and opponents (Jesuits) to whom the contradictory statement was attributed to her.

Incorrect attribution of quote

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. N. Machiavelli. Sovereign
2. https://iphlib.ru/library/collection/newphiLenc/document/hashek8843219e418710e4f8ec
3. K. Gilles. Niccolo Machiavelli