Is a streak of cruelty and a willingness to act immorally

一丝残酷与不道德的行为
necessary for statecraft,

是否为权术所需
as Machiavelli infamously argued?

如马基雅维里声名狼藉的著述
Must the statesman be capable of literally transforming human nature,

政治家必须有实在的能力转变人性吗
as Rousseau maintains, or is the sovereign a more or less

如卢梭所主张的统治者或多或少只是
faceless bureaucrat in manner of a modern CEO,

冷漠的官僚以现代CEO的方式
as, for example, someone like Hobbes seems to have believed?

如同霍布斯这类人深信的
All of our texts that we will read-- the Republic, the

我们所有的阅读教材《理想国》
Politics, the Prince,

《政治学》《君主论》
the Social Contract-- have different views on the

《社会契约论》就权术有不同的观点
qualities of statecraft and what are those qualities necessary to found

哪些特性是建立并维持国家所必须
and maintain states that we will be considering.

我们都将好好思考