rhetorical argument summary on baldwin pdf.

Kat Gonzales

Professor Feigner

English 124

25 September 2017

Rhetorical Brief: Machiavelli

Audience

• Medici Princes- powerful family of merchants and bankers • Current and future princes of Italy looking to be good rulers • The people of Italy and other nations that cherish things like property and intense war and

strategies/rulings that may be “fake” in appearance and somewhat cruel but are necessary to control a country effectively

• Nationalists • The upper classmen of Italy who are literate

Rhetor

• Italian diplomat, politician, historian, philosopher, humanist, and writer of the Renaissance period

• Father of modern political science • Born in Florence Italy • Aristocrat whose fortunes depended on the shifts of power • Suspected of crimes against the state and was imprisoned (although he was not guilty) by

the Medici princes • Became a writer instead of pursuing his career in civil service • Works contrasted luck and character • Wrote The Prince based off his perspective on what qualities a leader should have to

maintain his power that was directed to the Medici princes • He believes that power will be secured by direct and effective means—for good and not

evil • Views human nature with cynicism—a morally good person would eventually have to

compete with the mass of the people who are bad • Believes it’s better to be feared than loved • Believes cruelness is crucial in ruling

Purpose

• To persuade the Medici or King Ferdinand V of Spain to follow his guidelines in order to save Italy from being overtaken

• To convince people of power/leadership what a ruler should really be like for their people

Exigency

• Italy was being attacked for control by France and Spain during this time (The Invasions of Italy 1494-1527)

Isolate three sub-claims asserted by the rhetor

• The prince’s main focus should be war due to its institutions and discipline (paragraph 1 pg. 86)

• The prince should be idealistic when it comes to reputations and using them to his advantage (paragraph 7 pg. 88)

• The prince does not necessarily need to physically be generous because his actions (leadership) are revealed to be considered generous to the people (paragraph 10 pg. 90)

• The prince should appear to be generous and kind in order to hold power and avoid seeming cowardly or bad (paragraph 14 pg. 92)

• The prince should avoid property of other men (paragraph 14 pg. 92)

Identify three rhetorical strategies and consider how the rhetor uses these strategies to advance their argument

• Example: Francesco Sforza (paragraph 2 pg. 86), Philopoemon (paragraph 4 pg. 87), Pope Julius II (paragraph 10 pg. 90), King of France, Caesar and his generosity as a bad example (paragraph 11 pg. 90), Cesare Borgia as an example of a cruel ruler and how he brought success (paragraph 12 pg. 91), Hannibal (paragraph 16 pg.92), Scipio being too generous of a leader (paragraph 17 pg. 93)

• Catalog: Listing great leaders who followed other examples of other great leaders (paragraph 5 pg. 88

• Analogy: Specifically connects how Sciopio followed Xenophon’s leadership tips he had written about and hints that the intended reader should do the same with his work (paragraph 5 pg. 88)

• Repetition: Repeating “one who” while describing characteristics that the prince should have (paragraph 8 pg. 88)

• Authoritative Quotation: Virgil through Dido (paragraph 12 pg. 91) • Definition: fear (paragraph 14 pg. 92), prince qualities (throughout chapter) • Metaphor: fox and the lion (paragraph 21 pg. 94)