Who is wiser?
David Foster Wallace v. Niccolo Machiavelli Who is wiser? Actually that’s a very good question, and I’m certainly sure the questioner can get many different answers depending on who he or she asks. The beliefs of the two authors have very different points of view on how to behave in different circumstances one being on the daily life and the other being on how to rule. I’m sure we can discuss for hours on who is wiser between this two and we aren’t getting anywhere. First of all because some of us have different ways of defining wisdom and some don’t even know what it is. Second because our experiences between what is good or wrong can influence our definition and lastly because not even the wiser person is the planet can convince all the rest of the humans that he is right. Well for me wisdom is the knowledge of knowing what is good and right, but even though I know this sometimes I know I’m doing bad, but the truth is that sometimes doing good will not support my interest. David Foster Wallace talks about how to think while Niccolo Machiavelli talks about how to be a leader. Certainly both topics are kind of huge. If we look back in our day we will notice that Wallace is true about the way we think and if we look back in history we will notice that what Machiavelli says is true also, so if both are correct then who is wiser? I’m sure many will discuss with me about my answer and that’s because we have different points of view, belief, religion, interest, experiences, education, background and more especially culture, but for me David Foster Wallace is the wiser between this two authors. I sympathize with Wallace because we have the same belief on what’s good and wrong and I don’t sympathize with Machiavelli for the reason that he thought that killing to remain in power was okay. There are many factors that affected the authors’ way of thinking and one very important was the fact that they were from different periods of time and place .Machiavelli was from a time of conquest in the old continent and as he said in The prince “unarmed leaders had being ruined “expressing the kind of world where he was living, while Wallace was an American of the modern era. This surely was a factor that influenced the authors because we can tell that Wallace lived in a time were power was defined by the wealth and land of somebody, while Wallace had that more recently way of thinking of the modern era where those two factors of money and land that influenced Machiavelli are now being left in the side if they are not used appropriately for the benefit of the humanity because as he says in his book titled On life and work “the really important kind of freedom …to being able to care about other people and to sacrifice for them”, he is indirectly saying that we need to help if we have the chance because freedom is what really matters in this world. Their professions were one of the many other factors that affected these men. Machiavelli was an Italian political officer whose wishes was to put Italy on the list and in the top of the worlds powers in the times of the renaissance and let’s remember that during those days power was the most appreciable thing to most of the people; therefore he wrote a book on how to be a leader and how to keep the precious power. While Wallace was a modern novelist and college professor whose parents experienced college life showing him the way through life with the only need of conquering your dreams not other nations or people. We the Americans of the modern era are more likely