Human nature, moral duty and purpose of the State in Maquiavel

Abstract

We start from the study of human being, present in Machiavelli’s thought, in order to establish the State’s idea and its
relationship with ethics. There is, in regard to this question, a great polemics in the interpretive tradition which we could reduce
to two fundamental perspectives. The first is: Machiavelli understands human nature as definitely corrupted, and, as a consequence,
the State turns into a purely coercitive instrument of human malevolence. There is no space in this view to think of the State in
terms of ethical purposes. The second is: even taking for granted the idea of the human being’s inclination to evil, Machiavelli
thinks this is not irreversible. So, he underscores the importance of education as an instrument for human formation and cultivation
of moral values. In spite of the fact that the State must maintain the order for the people safety making use of the coercitive
instruments of both law and force, this is just a means to the achievement of justice highest purposes. This paper shows that
Machiavellian State is grounded in human nature and aims to enable ethical human agency. The State is not selfgrounded, so to
say, it is not an end in itself, nor even it is separated from ethics.