36 Babel Volume XXI
The Manipulation of Human Nature in Machiavelli’s The Prince Leah Chambers
A successful prince must pretend to be someone he is not to deceive his subjects and, by extension, nature. In The Prince, Niccolò Machiavelli considers what it means to be an ideal prince and the role of fortuna, virtù, and human nature in an ideal prince. He uses history as a guidebook for how princes of the present and future should act. Joseph Falvo’s article “Nature and Art in Machiavelli’s Prince” considers the forces that a prince must manipulate to succeed. He looks at the prince as an artist of his moral characteristics, deceiving his subjects into believing he is something that he is not. For Machiavelli, human nature is not a static phenomenon because it can be manipulated by individuals for their benefit. According to Machiavelli, a prince must manipulate the nature of beasts and humans to his advantage, which demonstrates that nature is a malleable tool for political gain. For Machiavelli, the nature of beasts and the nature of humans are two separate innate ways of acting, one natural to animals and the other to humans. In Chapter XVIII of The Prince, Machiavelli describes these two natures saying, “there are two modes of fighting: one in accordance with the laws, the other with force. The first is proper to man, the second to beasts.”1 He believes that humans are naturally inclined to use and understand laws, contracts, and agreements in their method of fighting, while animals are naturally inclined to violence through physical force.
