Comparing Niccolo Machiavelli And Mary Wollstonecraft
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Niccolò Machiavelli thinks that fortune and virtu are two concepts that go hand in hand. He illustrates that fortune is a woman. Mary Wollstonecraft is a revolutionary support of French revolution and wants women to have more freedom. She was ahead of her time for thinking that way. Both Niccolò Machiavelli and Mary Wollstonecraft had similar and different ideologies during their time about gender. I will then give my views on gender equality.
Niccolò Machiavelli has his own view on gendered language to discuss ethics. He says that the world is controlled by fortune and by God. He states that fortune is a woman. The author defines fortune as being a combination of luck, fate, external events, and the historical situation (Ethical Life, p.46).…show more content… Fortuna is anything that a person cannot control. He compares fortune to a raging river that can destroy everything in its pathway. Fortune is very powerful, and if one man wants to overcome her, he will need to use force against her. Machiavelli compares fortune to a woman since she likes young men because they are more violent, and less cautious. The men will command her with more audacity as well. He also says that one person cannot only depend on fortune. She, the fortune did not show any virtu while showing how powerful she is. Machiavelli states that virtu is a skill or ability that will help a prince, a man in authority, to seek their goal. Virtu is a man, the opposite gender of the female fortune. The masculinity of virtu is a bold or manly kind of a skill or ability (Ethical Life, p.47). All princes should all have virtu since it is a vital quality. This philosopher says that there are many ways to reach an objective. A person can reach it by skill and another…show more content… A similarity is that they both have almost the same definition of the word virtue. For Machiavelli, virtu is a skill or ability. For Wollstonecraft it is a quality that a man in authority needs to have to stay on top. Both philosophers illustrate that without it, the world would not be as great to live in. Machiavelli and Wollstonecraft say that those in authority need to have virtue to keep their influence in power. Another point they agree on is that women have power. Machiavelli states that fortune is a woman and that she decides half of an individual’s decisions during his lifetime. This comparison means that he believes women have the ability to influence other individuals which makes them powerful. Mary Wollstonecraft illustrates that if women are more educated, they will be able to make more decisions on their own and not be blind of what else is going on around them. One difference between Niccolò Machiavelli and Mary Wollstonecraft is the way that humans follow their faith. Machiavelli says that the world follows God and fortune, nothing else. He says that individuals follow the rules that these two have put together. Wollstonecraft says that people follow three concepts; Reason, Virtue and Knowledge. She explains that humans are the way they are because of those three concepts. Reason is the cause for one human to be better than animals. A human is better than