Machiavelli and Hobbes Analytical Essay by Top Papers

The paper relates that Renaissance Florentine diplomat and political philosopher Machiavelli, and the 17th century British political philosopher Thomas Hobbes, both address what each saw as the "reality" of human acquisitiveness and strategies for its political control in their respective works. This paper critically and comparatively explores how both thinkers understood this issue. The paper argues that while Machiavelli viewed this issue largely in practical terms, accepting the reality of this human nature and strategies by which his Prince or the political leaders of a republic may best manage it, Hobbes considers it largely in abstract terms in relation to his theoretical construct of a Commonwealth and its Sovereign.