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PSIR Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

Comment: Power is an end in itself and he (Machiavelli) inquires into the means that are best suited to acquire, retain and expand power, thus separates power from morality, ethics, religion and metaphysics. (Ebenstein on Machiavelli)

  • UPSC 2000
  • Western Political Thought

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The judgement comes from William Ebenstein's introduction to Niccolò Machiavelli in Great Political Thinkers: Plato to the Present (1951), where Machiavelli emerges as treating the state as a value in its own right. It is the classic statement of the power reading: Machiavelli as founder of the autonomy of politics. The reading describes The Prince…

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What the full answer covers

  • What the Statement Claims
  • The Case for Ebenstein
  • Where the Reading Overreaches
  • The Indian Perspective
  • Conclusion
PSIR Optional PYQ Solutions

PSIR Optional PYQ Solutions

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