===========================
 Machiavelli and Descartes
===========================

Machiavelli's "The Prince"
==========================

I have finally read the long-queued Machiavelli's "The Prince", which
turned out to be short and mostly known from secondary sources (it
being cynical, "realpolitik"), repeating some of the chapter on
maintenance of tyranny from Aristotle's "Politics", even in seemingly
minor details, e.g.: "princes ought to leave affairs of reproach to
the management of others, and keep those of grace in their own hands"
in "The Prince", "He should also let all honours flow immediately from
himself, but every censure from his subordinate officers and judges"
in "Politics". Though it uses a different arbitrary classification for
states.

Unsure how well its claims apply to modern times, in which wars appear
to be less common, and the technologies (including weapons and those
for mass surveillance) more advanced, though modern tyrannies seem to
follow similar tactics.

There appears to be some contradiction: usually the author expects men
to act selfishly and ignore virtue or morals, constrained by force
alone, and all pursuing glory and riches, but at times relies on
nobody being "so shameless as to become a monument of
ingratitude". Survivorship bias seems to be present in his
speculations on fortune, though that is not unexpected, since that was
not just before game theory, but even before probability
theory. Misogyny is admixed there.

Assuming that the work approximates a tyranny establishment and
maintenance good enough, I think for most people it is more
interesting how to resist that. But no surprise there, either:
according to it, and as mentioned in numerous other places, it is
harder to rule those states where people do not give up (and do
remember freedom), and harder yet if they are organized (e.g., with
barons).

Rather underwhelming overall, but still one of the major and
well-known works, and short, so seems worthwhile to read.


Descartes's "Meditations on First Philosophy"
=============================================

I have only read the first two chapters of Descartes's "Meditations on
First Philosophy" before, in which his skepticism is introduced and
human mind is considered, but skipped the rest, in which he confuses
himself back, and which are rather theological. Now decided to finish
those as well; fortunately it is short, too.

Odd assumptions/premises begin popping up in those chapters, combined
with lax reasoning, including appeals to ignorance, and sounding
rather feverish: occasional reasonable speculations mixed with
those. Which would be a disappointment if it was not widely known from
secondary sources already. Though there were interesting bits still:
attribution of errors to will affirming or denying things without
sufficient understanding (i.e., deciding upon insufficient
evidence). Moreover, the consequence he derives from that, that he
cannot be deceived if he is careful, sounds similar to a basic
assumption of science, that reality can be discovered. Ironically, it
is explicitly an assumption there, while he asserts it as knowledge.

As others before Darwin, he marvels at how nicely human body is
constructed, not suspecting evolution and adaptation; attributes
useful adaptations to goodness of a deity.

But the last four chapters also seem worthwhile to read, being even
shorter than "The Prince".


Other news
==========

- Continued reading OpenStax's "Introduction to Philosophy", halfway
  through now. It is quite high-level, and has some typos and
  inaccuracies, but fortunately it also has a working online errata,
  so those are going to be fixed. It is nice to read a modern text on
  philosophy for a change, and such overviews are good for the breadth
  of knowledge.

- The local situation keeps developing in the same direction as
  before: now there is software in development for grading how
  traditionally-valued students are, claims that imported toys
  distract children from loving the motherland, access to official
  archive data on political repressions is once again restricted, and
  combined with the increased taxes (income, VAT, and more), now there
  are proposals to cut universal healthcare (which is poor here) for
  the unemployed. I think it might be challenging to make up any
  satire on this, since the reality would quickly surpass it, and even
  the reality looks over the top.

- Apparently I do progress a little with the new physical exercises,
  despite catching a cold yet again, albeit slowly. Doing proper L-sit
  pull-ups (with straight legs) now, in addition to regular pull-ups,
  and holding L-sit for a little longer. Still beginner levels, but I
  am a beginner: up to 10 seconds on hands, 20 on parallettes. And I
  kept the streak of walks on rest days, but likely will cut it now:
  it is chilly (about 10 degrees Celsius) and rainy already; I tried
  walking for a couple of hours in such a weather, and past the
  sunset, without an umbrella or a hood, and found that it is far less
  pleasant or relaxing than walks when it is dry and light. Going to
  do indoors cardio instead, again, on most days until the late
  spring.

- Considered usage of optical media for backups, once again. Apart
  from difficulties and uncertainty with file management and
  encryption for those (e.g., still unsure whether LUKS + UDF would
  work smoothly), I am unsure which disk types may be most suitable:
  CDs have a lower density, which is apparently more reliable, yet
  least convenient; DVDs are in the middle, while BDs are supposed to
  last longer despite the high density, but external drives for those
  are quite rare, require more power, and are more expensive. But
  discovered that if you search in online stores for computer cases
  that have external 5.25-inch bays, they tend to also have proper
  internal 3.5-inch bays, not just holes for bolting HDDs onto the
  walls of a case.

- Tried out tinc, it works fine. I would normally use IPsec or
  Wireguard, but international connections over those are blocked
  here. Also installed its Android client from F-Droid repositories,
  but that requires to edit configuration files, and no editor can
  write those from the odd and restricted Android storage. No access
  to those via MTP, either. It is annoying to not be able to
  manipulate files on your device; at some point I should accept reset
  to factory settings and the risk of bricking, and root this Pixel
  phone, possibly switching to one of the alternative Android versions
  at once.


----

:Date: 2025-10-12
