Was Machiavelli an evil mastermind? A Svengali manipulator and corrupter of princes, worthy of the contemporary descriptor "Machiavellian"? Was he, rather, the first political scientist - an empiricist and pragmatist simply describing what he saw as the way things were? Or was he, simply, a politician? Today on MindMatters we discuss Machiavelli's short classic, The Prince. So join us as we try to make sense of the world of princely politics and the relevance of Machiavelli's work today. The times may have changed, but politics not so much - which suggests that perhaps Machiavelli was on to something.