Niccolo Machiavelli - Essay Example

Lecturer: Niccolo Machiavelli The ment is based on the fact events are generated by men who lived, and who will always liveinstigated by identical desires that must ultimately result in similar consequences. The statement applies in daily life supported by empirical understanding of human behavior instead of relying on theoretically attractive morality. Through this objective approach of predicting the future by understanding the present and past social phenomena, Machiavelli made enormous contribution in social science.

Machiavelli does not promote judgment toward moral value but rather their realistic impacts like political actions (Slotkin 67). Machiavelli shows experiences are not merely limited to explanation of similarity but also offers an outlook and to a certain degree predictability of change not only in human conditions but also in circumstances of human life. Therefore, the present and the past remain in nature the only guideline for the occurrence of future events. The essay discusses this statement.

Machiavelli statement depicts history as taking on educational role since there are similarities in present, past and future events. For instance, in index funds decision regarding where an entrepreneur can invest is essential. It is difficult to make a wise decision without adequate understanding of the long-term historical risks as well as returns in different indexes. Being able to gain the necessary understanding entails establishing the various indexes available for investment. Through remarkable understanding regarding the prolonged historical risks as well as returns of various indexes, investors are able to comprehend the way to apportion indexes according to their individual risk capability.

Naturally, investors are interested in investing on index portfolios, which provide the maximum return rate in the risk level matching the investor’s risk capacity (Hebner 166). Rational prediction in Machiavelli’s statement relies on the existence of proper links that connect predictive claims to input data, which in return provides the justification. The input data can only be available by understanding the past. Machiavelli believes that social conditioning never results in different responses because men are not byproducts of the diverse environments but through historical events that are the same and generate similar response in both present men and men of the past.

Through history, Machiavelli manages to show that it elicits sameness that allows creation of universal laws for behavior and explanation (Rigney & Douwe 31). Although Machiavelli may be right in his observation, material environment where expression of human nature takes place as well as the understanding of the environment have changed drastically. Moreover, although human passions may not change, the situation of human with regard to the environment alters the manner in which human emotions are transformed into actions.

Therefore, studying the past only reveals ways in which humans in the past developed relations with events (Caldwell & Shrader-Frechette 9). In conclusion, Machiavelli’s statement still is valid regardless of the some opposing claims against his statement regarding the future events based on past and present events. Although the statement was right in the fifteenth century, it may be challenged in the current environment because of the changes that have occurred since the fifteenth century.

Works cited Caldwell, Lynton K, and K S. Shrader-Frechette. Policy for Land: Law and Ethics. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1992. Print.Hebner, Mark T. Index Funds: The 12-Step Program for Active Investors. Irvine, Calif: IFA Publishing, 2007. Print.Rigney, Ann, and Douwe W. Fokkema. Cultural Participation: Trends Since the Middle Ages. Philadelphia: Benjamins, 1993. Print.Slotkin, James Sydney. Readings in Early Anthropology. Routledge, 2012. Print.