The Courtier

Today in class we travelled to Urbino in order to discuss Castiglione’s text The Courtier. It was very plato-esque in its execution. The speaker is having a discussion with other intellectual types and it is an attempt to persuade the others of the characteristics that would make the perfect noble man. Some of these qualities include knowledge of the liberal arts, of military techniques and modesty in this knowledge. Ever since reading this text I have been trying to find out what qualities the perfect person would have. When asked to write down those qualifications during the class discussion it took me no time at all to write down kind, resourceful, logical, respectful and strong-willed. However the more I think about it, the more I realize the flaws in those seemingly good characteristics. Something I believe that Machiavelli noticed is that a person cannot be too kind. If so they will be trampled on. In my life this has happened over and over again. So why is kindness such a good quality? Obviously a courtier should be generous and decent but there should be a balance between selfishness and kindness. A person should not be so absorbed in their own desires that they ignore the world around them. Yet they should also not be so kind that their resolution and willpower deplete. This is where the Aristotelian mean comes into play. According to Aristotle a person should strive to meet their own personal mean between the two extremes. I think that this is what The Courtier is saying as well. The courtier is supposed to be modest but not self-degrading. They should not let compliments go to their heads nor should they recognize their own greatness – even if they recognize it to themselves. I still think the resourcefulness is a quality that the ideal person would have. There has to be the ability to go into different situations without getting flustered or distracted by the change in surroundings. I think that being resourceful also leads to an air of confidence. If a person is resourceful then there should be no reason they are to get into any trouble. I think logical is still a good quality although I think that there should also be a smidge of emotion behind that logic. I would not necessarily say that the mean between logic and emotion should be met, because I feel that emotion is seen as a lesser quality. I think that kindness and respectful go hand in hand in this section. They are both good characteristics to have but there needs to be the mean between them because of the need to stay in control. Finally I think that I countered my own argument when I put kind and strong willed in the same list. Obviously, there are not polar opposites. They are not going to cancel each other out because each has a characteristic of its own that the other one cannot null and void. However I think that a happy medium between the two can be achieved and the perfect person would have that quality. It is so easy to argue against each characteristic that it is a wonder that Castiglione was able to create a whole text describing the perfect person and putting reasons behind them as well.