Pillars Of Society-St. A, Machiavelli, Hobbes

It is human nature to desire to better one’s station in life. All

Machiavelli would have agreed with Hobbes that the fight for power does disrupt peace. However, Machiavelli writes that this conflict can actually be beneficial to the state as long as the men striving for power are of good virtue. Machiavelli writes that the clashes between Rome’s nobility and populous was“... the primary factor making for Rome’s continuing freedom” (Book 1-Ch 4). This is because as long as good men were sovereigns, both sides of a social issue could be heard and laws that best served the entire populace were made. However, Machiavelli would have argued to that no matter what principles and laws a state enacts to prevent disorder, “all men are wicked and will always give vent to their evil impulses whenever they have the chance to” (1-3) and by example he would say that the Roman glory years were the three hundred years that the republic form of government stood, but fell eventually because the government was controlled by the wealthiest and most powerful men and not the most noble. He then goes on in chapter five to write that the biggest threat to peace in a republic are “[people] who want to acquire new power, or those anxious not to lose the power they have.” According to Machiavelli then, the vast majority of people who seek power or maintain power will do so only to for their own selfish impulses and will do whatever is necessary to acquire power

St. Augustine would agree that vanity is wrong and results in corruption of the state because of his staunch support of the church and its principles. He would have also strongly agreed with Machiavelli that “the Romans enjoyed greater harmony and a purer state of society between the second and third Punic wars than at any other time,” and would attribute this to Hobbes’ idea of natural law in that “the cause of this was not their love of good order, but their fear lest the peace they had with Carthage might be broken” (2-18). Before the Roman Empire did fall, Christianity became the official state religion. When shortly afterward the empire was invaded and fell, many wondered why the Christian God didn’t protect Rome. St. Augustine wrote City of God to answer these questions and to prove that Christianity was the true faith. His main arguments was that “the Roman republic had already been ruined by the depraved moral habits of the citizens, and had ceased to exist before the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this ruin they do not impute to their own gods, though they impute to our Christ the evils of this life, which cannot ruin good men, be they alive or dead. And this they do, though our Christ has issued so many precepts inculcating virtue and restraining vice; while their own gods have done nothing whatever to preserve that republic that served them, and to restrain it from ruin by such precepts, but have rather hastened its destruction, by corrupting its morality through their pestilent example” (2-25).

Hobbes believed that one sovereign should act as an impartial judge to manage the state and it’s domestic and foreign issues. Hobbes believes that the people should come together and elect a sovereign and establish a social contract. In doing so, the people would be personally responsible for the well being of

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