Mechiavelli, world's first modern political thinker

• Mechiavelli, Image source- internet

Niccolo Mechiavelli was born in Florence (Italy) in 1469. He was regarded as the first modern political thinker. In fact, he was more of a practical politician rather than a political philosopher, who set a new phase in the development of political philosophy. In 1513, Mechiavelli produced his masterpiece “THE PRINCE”.

Mechiavelli’s contributions to the political thought are highly recognized and regarded him as the chief exponent of modern political thought. He completely rejected the feudal conception of a hierarchy of autonomous entities & envisaged a territorial, national & sovereign state which enjoyed supreme power over all the institutions in the society. He deserves the credit for freeing politics from the clutches of ethics. He was also the first thinker to empathically denounce the authority of the Church & tried to reduce it to a subordinate position to the government. Mechiavelli for the first time to offered materialistic interpretation of the origin of the state, & completely ignored the metaphysical or supernatural elements. However, Karl Marx also learnt from him that there is no divine order of things designed by God in accordance with his plan for man & universe. Mechiavelli was also the first exponent of the principle of “Power Politics” & later in 1960’s Hense J Morgentheu was also added thoughts of power politics in his theory Realism. Mechiavelli’s historical method was another important contribution to the history of the political thought & has been discussed in the foregoing pages. He was also a great Pragmatist thinker & his study was also attached great importance to human psychology & advised his ruler to formulate his policies keeping in view of the people’s need. Lastly, it is worthless to put that as a first modern political thinker Mechiavelli ends the medieval era in the field of political philosophy & begins the ease of Modern Political Concepts.