Western Civilization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Western Civilization - Essay Example This brief analysis will consider the similarities as well as the divergence that is exhibited by these two authors as a function of the books they wrote and the views they espoused. Although a great many factors can be said to differentiate the understandings of Erasmus and Machiavelli, perhaps the greatest one revolves around the root â€Å"good† that each of the authors is hoping their leadership will effect. Machiavelli puts forward that the ultimate â€Å"good† is to achieve and maintain power. As a means to this end, the nature of moral choices that are undertaken become of a secondary nature. What this means is that to Machiavelli, the ultimate goal is the expansion and retention of the leader’s power. This can be effected through a variety of means that Machiavelli discusses. However, for the purposes of brevity, these means can be broken down into the nature of being feared versus being loved. To Machiavelli, humanity is duplicitous and untrustworthy. As such, Machiavelli believes that it is necessary for a leader to exhibit fearful attributes so that the subjects will seek to honor his will to power based on a healthy amount of fear for the different types of punitive actions the leader might effect. Although Machiavelli states that the leader should be feared and loved, this is oftentimes not entirely possible to exist at the same time for the same leader. In this way Machiavelli upholds to the reader that the most important concept to uphold would be that of overall fear due to the fact that of these two mechanisms, only fear has the ability to increase power of the ruler of the notions of fealty that love might induce. Conversely, Erasmus approaches the issue from a different perspective entirely. Rather than choosing to argue with Machiavelli over which of the two functions most dramatically increase the power of the leader in question, Erasmus chooses to focus instead on which approach entails the higher application of morali ty; or the greater good with reference to the Christian virtue. Obviously, with respect to Erasmus Christian humanism, the answer to this question is concentric around the â€Å"love of the leader†. In this way, Erasmus seeks to maximize the good while minimizing the evil. In a contrasting way to Machiavelli, Erasmus’ point of view is concentric upon the ways in which the leader can work to improve their kingdom both morally and spiritually. In this way, it is morally reprehensible for Erasmus to consider a point of view that employs devious or â€Å"evil† means to satisfy a given end. Although it is not the point of this analysis to break down Machiavelli’s approach into one that can be described by the simple â€Å"ends justifies the means† cliche, it does help the reader to gain a firm handle on the subject matter and attempt to understand the nuances of how Erasmus and Machiavelli both approach the same subject matter with widely different inte rpretations of how the leader can maximize his ultimate utility based upon these. Says Erasmus of the moral imperative that he attempts to relate to the reader, â€Å"If you cannot defend your realm without violating justice, without wanton loss of human life, without great loss to religion, give up and yield to the importunities of the age† (Erasmus 17)! Such a view is of course contradicted by the very realistic utilitarian methods that Machiavelli puts forward in his own treatise. Says Machiavelli, â€Å"Whenever you have to kill someone, make sure you have a suitable excuse and an obvious reason; but, above all else, keep your hands off other people’s property; for men are quicker to forget the death of their father than the loss of their inheritance. Moreover, there are always reasons why you might

Breaking Out of Paris Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Breaking Out of Paris - Essay Example The stories I could tell you about one celebrity, where he liked to go, and what he liked to do once he got there: you’d be amazed. I was never going to marry any of them, I was just there for the money. I could tell as soon as I went into their house what was sellable, when the maid would be stuck upstairs all day, and how we were going to break in the back and take the lot. Jones was different. He put his hand past me, to lean on the bar, and started quoting me long lines from Surrealist pamphlets and telling me about the freedom of the individual, every few minutes ordering himself another drink, and insisting that I join him. . I don’t know where, or how, but somewhere along the line, I ended up in his room. Once he was asleep, dreams considerably assisted by the consumption of so many cocktails, I went through his things. I know, I know, and you can judge me all you want, but I don’t pretend to be anything more than what I am: a cheap tart with sticky fingers. I have some very pretty dresses though, and I like nice things. As I opened his case, I saw instantly that my first assumptions had been right, and he was not the wealthy young businessmen he pretended to be. There had to have been more than five passports in there, none of them in the name of Cadillac Jones, and each giving a different nationality. I remember staring at the pictures, watching them go fuzzy, and then I don’t remember anything until the next morning. I thought at first he had slipped me a mickey, and I reached out my hand certain that my purse would be gone. Instead, there was a note pinned to the inside: It wasn’t any trouble to get in to see him: I think he knew deep down that this would happen, and he had gone out to find the right women, the thieves and gangs, who could help him pick that lock and walk away. I had thought our meeting a coincidence. Now I know it was as carefully planned and plotted as everything else. He greeted me