The problem of the good individual act which derives from in the Machiavelli’s political ethics. Related to some sequences of Saving private Ryan
Published 2009-07-19
Keywords
- Political ethics,
- tension between individual interests and the common good,
- Niccolò Machiavelli
How to Cite
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Abstract
This article’s objective is to find out what in what the good individual act in Machiavelli’s political ethics consists. To achive, they use some sequences of Steven Spielberg’s movie “Saving Private Ryan”. Since Machiavelli does not differentiate between ethics and politics other than in classic ethics and political ethics, the author discusses the concept of the good individual act which derives from the classical ethics —aristotelic-ciceronian and jewish-christian— is the only possible way to solve the problem. There is another way to answer that question, which also would be appropriate to the logic of politics. In the same way, attempts to show that good individual act of Machiavelli’s ethic was not at: the ends justify the means, as usually believed, but by the standard: avoid greater evils lesser evils. The good individual act in the political ethics would be marked by a specific trait of behavior: the ability to subordinate the salvation of the soul to the salvation of the city.