Cicero and Machiavelli on Political Ethics
Author: Carl K. Y. Shaw
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
This article compares Cicero’s humanitarian idea of social ethics with Machiavelli’s political ethics. Cicero’s analysis of virtues, which is based on the distinction between honestum and utilitas, is examined in detail. Machiavelli overthrow Cicero’s classical framework by highlighting necessitas as the central category in the political arena, so as to reformulate all four cardinal virtues advocated by Cicero. Based on Hannah Arendt’s perspective, I contend that Cicero and Machiavelli represent two paradigms about political ethics in the Western political thought: ethics of norms versus ethics of order. Cicero’s theories of natural law and juristic resolution of value conflicts presuppose a set of well-ordered social norms, while Machiavelli’s focus on founding and reforming political community brings forth the issue of creation of order out of corruption. The distinction between ethics of norms and ethics of order would thus provide a fruitful framework to interpret the originality of Machiavelli’s political ethics.