I have been reading Machiavelli's Discourses on Livy and he seems opposed to war (only a 1/3 the way through though), yet in modern times he's portrayed as the penultimate "Drum-beater" – or "Drum-beating herald" so to speak.
I guess I just don't understand a lot of what he read, wrote, or thought and was wondering if you could help paint a better portrait of him than his books do.
Thank you.
What Machiavelli argued was a calculating approach to governance and foreign affairs that was at odds with the christian interpretation of a righteous ruler, guided by christian moral virtue - which was conventional thinking at the time. It was this deviation from orthodox ethicists of his own time that earned Machiavelli his reputation as an evil man espousing an evil philosophy.
The popular media representation of the man and his philosophy today, unsurprisinglyafter a 400 year game of telephone, is a caricature of both him and the criticisms that were levelled against him.
Machiavelli argued that rulers, behaving in their capacity as rulers, could not afford to behave as though bad faith actors and immoral rivals did not exist. Further that governing according to idealistic principles - instead of objective readings of reality - was more likely than not to bring rulera and their states to ruin.
Critics argued that Machiavelli was giving sanction for the worst excesses of the ruling classes; who needed no help behaving immorally anyway. That his work amounted to social license to avoid conducting themselves with propriety and kindness and instead to encouraging deception, manipulation, violence and tyranny to protect their own rule.
One of the issues with Machiavelli is that his writings are often inconsistent and his ideas incomplete. Much of this owes to the fact his main works were essentially resumes he wrote to impress rulers he hoped would employ him. Partly this is because he sought to describe politics as it truly was and not as ideals.
Obviously Machiavelli's philosophy offered warfare as a tool in leaders' toolbox - this did not mean he was blind to the many risks that warfare entailed.
Interestingly the quote most often associated with Machiavelli: It is better to be feared than loved - is not a statement Machiavelli is known to have made. Rather he wrote "It would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved."
You can see here, there is implied moderation to what is permitted and why. Machiavelli spends a lot of time countering expected criticism from the orthodoxy of his day - the idea that good actions will have good outcomes - but very little anticipating how his philosophy might be abused by bad faith actors.