Machiavelli and righteousness

May 5, 2009
New York Times


Re “Stumbling Blocks on the Path of Righteousness” (Science Times, May 5): The dichotomy between what people should or ought to do and what they actually do when placed in certain situations is universal and not new.

The Renaissance humanist Niccolo Machiavelli back in the fifteenth century approached realistically the problem of righteousness in politics. In his famous books The Prince and The Discourses he gives examples of leaders having to do what outsiders might consider ruthless or opportunistic in order to maintain power and provide for the common good.

Whether providing for the common good or for one’s own good, it seems that
righteousness, like beauty is often in the eye of the beholder and like many moral dilemmas is not so easily defined.

Ed Volpintesta MD