Machiavelli argued against this Platonic philosophy. ... This is in stark contrast to the Platonic philosophy when man existed to serve the state, the basic idea being that ethics and politics are intertwined, its essential features overlapping. ...
Viewed throughout history as violent and barbaric philosophies, these proverbs and observations merely point out what actions have proven to be successful or unsuccessful for the different rulers. ... The subsequent chain of events has led cynics to suggest that Bill Clinton manipulated if not manufactured the crisis in Kosovo in order to divert attention from the shame of impeachment and to help him burnish his damaged legacy. ...
In the Leviathan and the Second Treatise of Civil Government, Hobbes and Locke, respectively, both ground their political philosophies at the same location: the state of nature, meaning the natural condition of mankind prior to any artifice such as government. ... Maintaining the theory that in order to preserve life (avoid the state of nature) natural man must strive for peace, Hobbes then constructs the first law of nature, "That every man, ought to endeavour Peace, as far as he can hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek, and use, all helps and advantages of w...