MACHIAVELLI'S CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL PRACTICE OF RENAISSANCE HUMANISM

This article aims to address the context in which Machiavelli, who was part of the set of humanist thinkers, on the other hand, also disagreed with the political ideas of his contemporaries, also launched a strong critique of the political practice of Christianity, recognizing its weakness and inadequacy of the social ends necessary for a society to strengthen and prosper. The starting point of the humanist authors was the ideal of freedom, which, taken in its traditional sense, meant independence and republican self-government. To these thinkers the good ruler should have prudence, temperance, honesty and not merely appear to possess these virtues. Facing humanist ideals, Machiavelli formulated his political precepts, opposing the conceptions presented, because the policy for this Florentine has its own rules. To analyze these themes the Florentine had to contradict a whole universe of political ideals, among them those of Christianity itself, responsible for the moral conception of his time. Machiavelli directed his attacks on Christian ingenuity in politics, claiming that Christianity forms weak and unprepared men for public life. Christian political practice did not favor the ideal of the common good, for its purpose was not to exalt the fatherland but to hope in eternal life, rendering men detached from the things of this world.