THE PRINCE Niccolo Machiavelli “It is better to be loved than to be feared but must avoid being despised and hate” – Niccolo Machiavelli. Machiavelli, like the other political thinkers, discusses about what is and what is ought to be a prince. His thoughts were introduced to his readers in his book entitled “The Prince”. In his first chapter, he confers and explains that a prince should study or thought of war. Accordingly, it is with this that a prince will always be in reign and without this a prince will lose its state. These princes that have lost their state are just thinking of a luxury than of arms such as Francesco Sforza and the Duke of Milan. Machiavelli gave two ways on how a prince can practice war; it is in study and in action. In action, a prince should exercise his men and keep them well-disciplined, engage in hunting to acquaint his men to hardship. In study, while his men engaged in hunting, they will at the same time study the nature of the lands, mountains, valleys, plains and rivers and swamps – with this skills, a prince can find enemy, take up quarters, lead armies, plan battles and siege towns with advantage. A prince also has to read history for in this, he will learn what are the good victories of the old princes, to know what have they done to win such war and to what extent some wars are loss for by reading history, he can learn from the mistakes of others and apply strategies in his battles for those good victories. After deliberating on why princes should aim, thought and study war, he then elaborated his second notion on why princes are being blamed and praised. There are two types of prince: the one considered as liberal and the other as misero. In categorizing the prince, Machiavelli provided some of its characteristics. A liberal prince is a free giver while the misero is rapacious but who is the one to be blame and to be praise? In Machiavelli’s stand, it is the both of them. For in liberal prince, to maintain his liberal side, he has to be prudent in not to engage into such vices then he will be praised and if he engaged into such vices he will be blamed and the same goes to the misero. But maintaining such reputation is difficult than a miser that is why Machiavelli said that “It is, therefore, wiser to have the name of a miser, which produces disgrace, without hatred, than to incur of necessity the name of being rapacious which produces both disgrace and hatred” but there are some liberal princes who have attained an empire through liberality, then, Machiavelli replied that they were a successor or a prince already. According to him, it is necessary to be considered as liberal but then liberality is harmful. He indicates that a prince must not mind earning the charge of cruelty for the purpose of keeping his subjects faithful and united for he believes that if a prince is too merciful there will be disorders and so, as he is exercising this, the reputation of the prince is being shaky. People may not love him and fear him but Machavelli express that it is safer to be feared than to be loved but should avoid hatred, and if he is obliged to kill somebody, let him do it when it is justifiable and manifested with reason but a prince should not take the properties of others and should not mind if his cruel – for without this characteristics, he cannot lead, unite and dispose his armies. By the end of his fourth chapter, he concluded that though man have their free will and loved them, they still fear the will of the prince for in this he will acquire power and authority and will keep its subject united and faithful to him but still avoid being hated by your subjects. Machiavelli remind that being cruel all the time is not good, a prince should know when to be loved and feared, and when to be praised and blame and that is, a prince should know and it is necessary to know how to be both the beast and the man. A prince must imitate the fox and the lion – a fox that recognize traps and a lion that frighten wolves. Also, as the prince does actions that would benefit or not his subjects, Machiavelli believes that the end justifies the means. There are two things that a prince has fear: by his subjects (internal) and by foreign power (external) but if a prince rules and lives in a way Machiavelli want it to be no matter how large that problem his facing in external he can withstand and fight back because his subject still feared and follows his will. But if the prince does not live according to Machiavelli’s ways, there will be conspiracy which is the result of discontentment of his people and so, a prince needs to satisfy and keep his subjects contented to avoid conspiracy. Most of the princes builds fortresses but Machiavelli prefers and lauded a prince which rather does not build fortresses just to make his subjects not to hate him for in hatred, a prince might be ousted and lose its state and its power. A prince’s outstanding greatness and being a lover of merit is how a prince can regain and gain his reputation. All of this is how Machiavelli perceive what is ought to be a prince or a leader, he sees and thinks that to have a stable state it must have an outstanding, a bit miser and liberal, a bit loved but feared and fox and a lion at the same time for Machiavelli believes that by these characteristics of prince will bring stability and successful state.