Academic level Undergrad. (yrs 3-4) Discipline Political science Document type Critical Thinking Spacing DOUBLE Citation style MLA

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Waller Newell’s Tyranny: A New Interpretation
A Tyrannical man is created by the desire to inspire Fear over the lustful desires of Eros
In case the past few years have proved anything, it is that individuals are wrong to perceive
that they will identify tyranny when they come across it. The ones that fancy themselves
particularly when attuned to discerning and resisting tyranny tend to become so elated at the
concept of playing dress-up in valiant costumes that they overlook the plot. Contemplate
about the ad reading from a New York Times billboard “Truth. It’s more important now than
ever” (Clairmont 1). Is it? More than ever? More than at the time of the hearing of McCarthy
in 1954? More than at the time of the Vietnam war? More than when Hitler rose to power?
Does democracy disintegrate in darkness, or does it also die in broad daylight?
Waller R. Newell has publicized an in-depth and extensive work on politics’ dark
side, referred to as the regime that has described evil in politics since the political supposition
– tyranny was incepted. What immediately draws the reader is the author’s attempt to link an
extremely theoretical philosophical approach (largely influenced by Leo Strauss and
Heidegger) while concentrating on political reality, contemporary occurrences included,
concerning the tyranny phenomenon (Giorgini 702). His aim – as the book’s subtitle implies
– is to give a novel interpretation of the practical and historical occurrence, the advent of
tyrannical reigns at various phases of human history.
The primary supposition by Newell is that tyranny (and the comprehension of the
phenomenon) went through a perceptible change at the start of modernity, with such writers

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like Bacon, Machiavelli, and Hobbes. Initially, Plato presented an interpretation of tyranny
that stayed orthodox in classical political reasoning: in his strong depiction, the tyrant was
attributed to a misconceived love for material pleasures. This left an open door that they
would possibly get redeemed via a philosophical education with the capability of the
redirection of eros towards civic and moral virtue. Contemporary writers apportioned with
this elucidation in terms of eros: they obliterated love from the soul of the ruler and
transferred it to the secular prince, a transformative creation of power ex nihilo previously
reserved for God (Clarke 166).
The author maintains that this signified an ontological repositioning in man’s
association with nature. Modern philosophers like Hobbes and Machiavelli revived
Sophists’ “Primordist ontology” attributed by chance, strife, and domination, and advocated
for the conquest of nature by man, the human nature included (Giorgini 703). Tyranny,
therefore, became the tool for establishing the novel man as well as bringing about a
definitive and perfect regime, despite the methods utilized. Building on the insight by
Newell, one might state further that medieval philosophers (like Aristotle, Plato, and
Xenophon) strove to explain tyranny and attempted to metamorphose it into a good regime
(Bernstein 222). The modern thinkers, on the other end, appear to have influenced or
originated the present form of tyranny.
Plato posits that Eros steers man into the end descent from timocracy, aristocracy,
democracy, and oligarchy into tyranny. Plato offers that the perfect definition of the soul of
tyranny is that he is drawn into a life that is perfectly lawless that his seducers are driven to
believe is perfect liberty. His father and allies participate in his moderate desires, and the
opposite party aids the opposite ones and when his other lusts, among clouds of perfumes,
incense, wines, and garlands, and ad all the dissolute life pleasures now let loose and sets

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them forth until he has purged away temperance and instigated madness in full. According to
Plato, this is how the soul of tyranny is born (Plato 128-135).
Therefore, it does not just happen in a day; the soul of tyranny is built with time when
the community leaves the exemplary Kallipolis and steadily disintegrates into a state of
insanity, consumed and aroused by the desire and lust of the tyrant. Stanley Rosen records the
correlation betwixt tyranny and Eros, defining Socrates as a defender of the public on the
political responsibility of philosophy, attempting to lower the link betwixt philosophy and
Eros because Eros strives for the desire of the individual and steers him away from and
beyond the political justice and city (Rosen 460). Newell posits that classical tyranny is
depicted by the logos driving the Thomos (passions) and Eros (desires) of the soul towards an
ideal harmonious balance that is epitomized by well-tempered wholeness and dignity that
swirls when intellect and desires are perfectly integrated with the cosmos (Newell 57).
Nonetheless, the ideal embodiment of the soul of tyranny is not so much about being a
private tyrant but rather when it is directed towards the polis.
Succumbing into lawless desires, the tyrannical man permits the manifestation of
dreams in reality, and he gets consumed by debauchery, fests, and luxury and, in the end,
turns to lies and a robust force. This is apparent in Xenophon discussion betwixt Simonides
and Hiero I (to get further analyzed when discussing Kojeve and Strauss) as claimed by Hiero
I, it is as if the tyrant ends up obsessed with satisfying his desires and is not able to trust any
person and once they join the political realm a tyrant may end up getting paranoid since he is
engulfed in the peril of being eliminated in revenge for his offenses and the subjugation of the
citizens' rights. The tyrannical man that was propelled by his Thomos and Eros concretizes by
the tyrannical state are the height of injustice and unhappiness (Plato 31). Now, it is fairly
evident that Thomos and Eros, as the desires and passions of a tyrant end up unhinged and

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result in the fall into a tyrannical state. This is distinct to the classical delineation of a soul,
but the contemporary tyrannical psyche splits from the Platonic concept of the soul with
Niccolo Machiavelli's and Hobbe’s concept of fear.
Consequently, in attempting to explain the concept of tyranny, Machiavelli depicts a
paradigm shift in the western perception and cuts out philosophy, disputing openly Plato's
proposed classical soul. In a metaphysical aspect, the novel interpretation by Machiavelli of
the soul is depicted primordially where the objective of the price lies in mastering the
origination realm through methodical rationality, ensuring the welfare and security of the
state and citizenry. Machiavelli asserts in the tyrannical man's soul, the Thomos now gains
precedence over the Eros (Newell 435). To the contemporary tyrant, discovering the balance
in the soul between the logos, eros, and Thomos is no longer the precedent goal but rather
mastering Fortuna. For Machiavelli, even the most principled city can hinder because of
Fortuna so the prince ought not to attempt to transcend in any metaphysical form. Rather, the
prince (in this case the ruler) ought to gain a mastery of Fortuna for it is better to be daring
instead of becoming one of those people that go to work more coldly. Therefore, is often
woman-like, a lover of astute men since they have less caution, are more violent, and possess
more audacity to reign over her (Machiavelli 119).
Machiavelli has no regard for the classical soul because he insists that the tyrannical
man is more concerned for the nation and not his soul. Hence, he defines virtues as attributes
that others appraise and insists that a prince ought to always attempt to seem virtuous.
However, being virtuous can end up being deleterious to the principality. The philosopher is
amoral and utilizes legislations to legitimize the utilization of force in a nation, citing
Agathocles of Syracuse’s example. In Book XVII, Machiavelli offers his most infamous
anecdote when asserting that a prince ought to always give priority to the subjugation and

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fear of his citizens instead of their love. With this, Newell asserts firmly that the philosopher
agrees to the Primordist perception of political science because he views passions (like
wealth and honor) as being distinguished from the orientation of eros towards an external
good. Newell records that Fortuna as a natural state cannot coalesce with the transcendental
classical perception of nature or the soul because it does not provide any prospect of eternal
good or lasting peace. Instead, the corrosion of Eros as the steering force establishes a reality
where thumos equally diminishes and the natural state ends up as a singular amoral Fortuna
where tyrants ought to conquer via an act of willingness rather than morality (Newell 70 -
73).
Hobbes agrees with this aspect of using fear by the leader. In unlatching the
Leviathan, Hobbes asserts that nature resembles a machine that is modeled by God. By
imitating the conception of nature, man can model an artificial man, the Commonwealth, and
hence resolve the natural defects of human passions that, without being checked would result
in a war for all people. Hence, a man may replace the artificer – God with rationale
assimilated t the will of reconstructing nature. The same as what Bacon posited, the
knowledge of nature is what provides man with the ability to refabricate it (Newell 468).
Speaking broadly, Newell insists that the potential of the political philosophy by
Hobbe for the future runs into two distinct directions: enlightenment and totalitarianism. On
one degree, as it has been observed, the sovereign must possess the capacity of inspiring fear,
particularly in the vainglorious; for the replication of the terror that might spontaneously be
endured when we convert from the social contract to the natural state with its war of all
against all, hence tutoring those stupidly tempted to do so to alter their course of action.
Through the institutional replication of this fear, the Sovereign liberates us from ourselves via

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an advantageous portion of fear, anticipating the depiction of Hegel of the slave as being
deliquesced by the fear stimulated in him by the master (Newell 469).
Subscribing to this philosophy of fear, then, Stalin was of the consistent Hobbesians
to have lived in history. He utilized terror in his relentless campaign of recreating the nature
of human beings as empty integers that can be interchanged, dispossessed of ambition, living
in enforced harmony. Hitler utilized similar approaches in the Volk purification. Still, as the
author stresses, there is no early – contemporary political supposition dimension, even in its
darkest probability, completely explains the potential for millenarian revolution and
totalitarian or terrorism such as that of the Nazis or Bolsheviks. The additional radicalization
of the implementation of the will of reshaping human nature may only be contemplated
through Rousseau’s romanticization of the citizens (Newell 469).
In conclusion, political philosophers believe that the lustful desires of eros and the
desire to create a new being who can assert fear are the parameters that lead to the creation of
tyranny. However, there is a distinction between the medieval philosophers and the
contemporary philosophers in that for one the Eros takes the steering wheel while in the latter
the Thumos is responsible for the creation of a tyrant. Nonetheless, even when pursuing
lustful desires, there comes a time when the tyrant is forced to use terror to assert his
authority and preserve his position and life from those that are not happy with his form of
leadership.

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Works cited
Bernstein, Jeffrey A. "A Note on a Digression on Arendt in Waller Newell's Tyranny: A New
Interpretation." Perspectives on Political Science (2017): 221 - 224.
Clairmont, Nicholas. "Tyranny, Trump, and Anti-Trump." Tablet 21 February 2020.
Clarke, Mitchelle T. "Tyranny: A new interpretation." Contemporary Political Theory (2017):
165 - 168.
Giorgini, Giovanni. "Review: Fear Over Love." Review of Politics (2014): 702 - 705.
Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince and Other Writings. San Diego: Baker and Taylor
Publishing Group, 2014.
Newell, Waller R. Tyranny: A New Interpretation. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2013.
Plato. The Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Rosen, Stanley. "The Role of Eros in Plato's "Republic"." The Review of Metaphysics
(1965): 452 - 475.