Machiavelli's Views on Religion and Politics

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 - 1527) was an Italian statesman and political writer. He was employed on diplomatic missions as a defense secretary for his nation. When here tired from his public life, he wrote one of his famous books, The Prince in 1513, which describes the mechanisms through which political power is gained and maintained. The prince is the most revolutionary work that opens a new chapter as far as the realm of modern political philosophy is concerned. Unlike the conventional understanding about political power during the ancient as well as medieval periods, Machiavelli¿s political analysis does not associate the end of the state power to some extra-political (moral, religious and cultural) standards, so that it has been defined as an end in itself. Accordingly, he confines his inquiries into the means that are best suited to acquire, retain and expand political power. At the final analysis, he separates the discourse on political power as well as the means to acquire and sustain it from basic religious and conventional moral maxims.