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The Importance Of Free Will In Machiavelli's The Prince

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Free will, is a thing we all have and use. Machiavelli sometimes used the words “fortune” and “Virtue” to talk about two different ways a prince can come to power. “Virtue” refers to a person's actions or skill, while “fortune” talks about chance or luck.The Prince determines how much of a prince’s successfulness or tragedies are caused by his own free will and how much is chosen by nature or the environment in which he lives. Machiavelli applies this question specifically to the failure of past to other princes. In chapter 25, Machiavelli talks about fortune when he talks about personal problems. He tries to talk about free will and rightfulness by arguing that luck controls half of personal actions and leaves the other half to free will. However, Machiavelli also disagrees that through foresight, a quality that he talks about throughout the book, people can shield themselves against fortune’s progression. And, Machiavelli can be talked about as confident in the will of peoples beings to shape their lives as a whole to a degree, but equally thinking that human control over events is never …show more content…
A prince's most important rule in life is not to model a kind of moral virtue or vow of good behavior, but simply rule effectively. ”and whereas all subjects cannot be armed, yet when those whom you do arm are benefited, the others can be handled more freely, and this difference in their treatment, which they quite understand, makes the former your dependants, and the latter, considering it to be necessary that those who have the most danger and service should have the most reward, excuse you.”(pg.37) Princes should never take away defenses from their subjects if a prince arms his people, their arms become his. If a prince disarms them, the people will retaliate and overthrow him, and he will be forced to buy an

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