The answer is:
Machiavelli forces readers to carefully consider the meanings of the words merciful and mercy.
In the passage from "The Prince," the author Niccolò Machiavelli mentions the words mercy and merciful intending to make readers contemplate their meanings with special circumspection. Thus, <em>mercy </em>is compassion towards somebody one can hurt or punish, and <em>merciful </em>means benevolent. In that respect, Machiavelli suggests that an unsympathetic ruler can preserve power rather than a compassionate one.
Synonym clue, because a Synonym is a word that is exactly like or nearly like another word, if the word trying to be explained is explained by comparing it to another word is is exactly or nearly like it it is a Synonym Clue.
<em>Fallacy of oversimplification is also known as Fallacy of Reduction or "Reductive fallacy". </em>
<em>This fallacy is a type of faulty reasoning that involves a faulty causation, it is either about the reduction of a certain effect to a minimum of causes or reducing a complex array of causes to a single one, that cannot take account for all the effects of it or for it at all. </em>
<em>Example: “P1. Poverty is linked to causes of crime.</em>
<em>C. Therefore, if we eradicate poverty, we will eradicate crime.”</em>
"in the past" makes the most sense here :)
