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AUDIENCE COMMENTS |
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An opportunity for the audience to have their say on In Our Time. |
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MACHIAVELLI
M Walker, Machiavelli
Great show, as always. Please keep up the mp3 downloads. It's essential for anyone who doesn't get the show when it's on.
Gregory samules- In our Time
I personally did not enjoy the program and thought they could have made it much more fascinating and simple to understand.
Ann Barton, virtue and Machiavelli
If you ask what morality is before you ask what virtues are you can get some fresh thoughts. I think it is a social adaptation promoting social cohesion and co-operation. Then you have a programme rather than a list of rules or "goodies". And back in Aquinas and beyond, the Cardinal Virtues came first - prudence, temperance, fortitude and justice. Then clemency is a merciful act, but only if it is also prudent and just. There is always a need for sense if you want to live a rational life, the truth teller who betrays the victim to Kant's mad axe-man lacks sense. If politicians are known to tell lies, they lose credibility. And we become ungovernable.
Michael Moore - Machiavelli
Wonderful program. Thank you indeed. By the way, I agree with Neil Foxlee. We have to out-lie those neocons. Believe me, it's our only hope. But we mustn't get caught out like Dan Rather on CBS with his fake Bush memos. We need some real art in our lying, as I've tried to show in my latest blockbuster film. Keep up the bias, boys (and girls).
All of them...
Fantastic series. I always try to catch it on a Thursday evening; I'm always listening to the archived programmes. This is a paragon of public service broadcasting: it's humanistic and open. My favourite is still the broadcast on SuperNovas, the "stuff" that makes everything else - utterly compelling. I could go on. yours Ray
Neil Foxlee - From Machiavelli to Wolfowitz
Further to my note about Leo Strauss and Machiavelli below, self-proclaimed Straussians include US deputy secretary of defence Paul Wolfowitz and William Kristol,chairman of the neocon Project for the New American Century,who wrote his thesis on Machiavelli. According to Professor Shadia Drury, the leading critic of Strauss, 'Strauss endorsed Machiavellian tactics in politics - not just lies and the manipulation of public opinion but every manner of unscrupulous conduct necessary to keep the masses in a state of heightened alert, afraid for their lives and their families and therefore willing to do whatever was deemed necessary for the security of the nation. For Strauss as for Machiavelli, only the constant threat of a common enemy could save a people from becoming soft, pampered, and depraved.' ('Leo Strauss and the Grand Inquisitor', available on the web). The power of nightmares indeed.
machiavelli...léo burton
Social orders may be considered metaphorically as horizontal or vertical.Horizontal tend to be republican, more stable: leaders, prince(first) duke (leader) are first in battle and fight for glory..e.g.henry v.Vertical societies like our are usually theocracies, with fathers; zeus on olympus, jupiter, our father in heaven...rulers appointed by divine right,not responsible to the public.
MP3 user
Like others, I would find the MP3 format useful in the archive (and in other areas of the BBC website).
Machiavelli
Brilliant programme this morning. Absolutely first class.
Revd Stephen J Williams Machiavelli
Dear Melvyn and team, I always listen whenever I can. Your programme on Machiavelli was of particular interest since I frequently feel our current politicians would do well to study him more! But also because one of the most famous 'Christian' replies to Il príncipe was translated here in my parish by James Astry, of Harlington Woodend (published 1700). The actual book he translated was Diego de Saavedra Fajardo's "Idea de un príncipe político cristiano" written 1640, which he re-titled The Royal Politician "done into English". This introduced his counter-arguments to a wider public in England. Naturally a copy found its way into King George III's Library, though we also have one here. James Astry was buried in my church, and we still have his attractive marble memorial. Kind regards, Revd Stephen Williams, Vicar of Harlington, Bedfordshire LU5 6LE.
Neil Foxlee - Machiavelli and neoconservatism
1. I note that your reading list includes Thoughts on Machiavelli by Leo Strauss. Presumably this is the same Leo Strauss who is widely held to be the philosophical inspiration for US neoconservatism (cf. the Power of Nightmares BBC2 series), and who advocated the revival of Plato's notion of the Noble Lie in politics. It is a shame that Melvyn's status as a Labour peer prevents discussion of ideas from the past that relate to present-day political matters. 2. The question of whether it is rational to be moral reappears in modern game theory (eg the Prisoner's Dilemma). 3. Another excellent source for following up threads from the programme is the out-of-print Dictionary of the History of Ideas, available online at the University of Virginia website.
Machiavelli
Can someone tell me about Aquinas's "The christian Prince" written ,I believe,for Louis IX {St Louis}? Also,can you tell me something about Frances Patrizi who wrote a "De Republicae" circa 1450-70? his work influenced,it seems, Thomas More later for his "Utopia"? Thank you for you most interesting discussions on air.Please continue. M.C Elliott {Mrs}
Anna Spencer Machiavelli
Not a debate contribution - just to thank you for another fascinating programme. Listened entranced, as always.
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