One of the most controversial figures in political theory history, Niccolo Machiavelli's ideas and theories have stirred a tide of controversy and debate amongst scholars, critics and political theorists. His most famous book, "The Prince", was revolutionary in that it presented a vision of political rule purged of extraneous moralising influences. Unlike Plato and Aristotle before him, Machiavelli wanted to draw rules for successful political behaviour from history and experience, not from the realm of imagination or from the demands of Christian ethics. "The Prince" in many ways represents a fundamental break in the history of political theory between realism and idealism. For Machiavelli, politics is not about the good life or the achievement of justice but it is a very important autonomous activity with its own rules - not derived from any other types of rules or laws. Machiavelli assumes that the purpose of politics is to ensure the autonomy and sovereignty of the state, that it is a mixture of good and evil and not a pure activity. Central to Machiavelli's thesis are the notions of virtu and fortuna, which he re-defines to hammer home his arguments. For civic humanists, virtu was understood in its Aristotelian sense, connoting moral goodness. To Machiavelli however, the term virtu is employed to refer to the range of personal qualities that the prince will find it necessary to acquire in order to "maintain his state" and to "achieve great things," the two standard markers of power for him. By contrast, fortuna exists as the enemy of the political order, the ultimate threat to the security and stability of the state. Machiavelli revives in his work the pagan notion of Fortune as an essentially uncontrollable goddess, who may nevertheless grant her favours to a man of virtu. A prince must be ready to react to Fortune, so as to preserve his power, and in this regard, virtu is integral. The relationship between virtu and fortuna is fundamental to Machiavelli's theory of how a prince can acquire and maintain power.An understanding of the concept of Fortuna is important in trying to place virtu in the context of Machiavelli's ideas. Machiavelli describes his definition of Fortune in "The Prince" as he states, "I judge it to be true that fortune is the arbiter of one half of our action, but that she still leaves the control of the other half, or almost that, to us." The figure of Fortuna makes an appearance in Chapter 25 of "The Prince", but the concept of fortune is present throughout. In general, Machiavelli uses Fortuna to refer to all of those circumstances which human beings cannot control, and in particular, to the character of the times, which has direct bearing on a prince's success or failure. Machiavelli initially compares Fortuna to a woman and then later on to a raging river - both analogies say a lot about what Machiavelli thought of the concept. By comparing fortune to a woman Machiavelli believes that it can be dealt with the same...
