Thoughts on Machiavelli
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Published: October 15, 1995
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 348
ISBN-13: 9780226777023
Subjects: Political science & theory; Western philosophy, c 500 to c 1600; Political Philosophy; Political Science; Philosophy; Politics/International Relations; General; Contributions in political science; Machiavelli, Niccolo; Political Science / General; 1469-1527; Contributions in political sci; Machiavelli, Niccolo,; Machiavelli, Niccoláo,
First sentence: WE shall not shock anyone, we shall merely expose ourselves to good-natured or at any rate harmless ridicule, if we profess ourselves inclined to the old-fashioned and simple opinion according to which Machiavelli was a teacher of evil.
Description: Leo Strauss argued that the most visible fact about Machiavelli's doctrine is also the most useful one: Machiavelli seems to be a teacher of wickedness. Strauss sought to incorporate this idea in his interpretation without permitting it to overwhelm or exhaust his exegesis of The Prince and the Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy. "We are in sympathy," he writes, "with the simple opinion about Machiavelli [namely, the wickedness of his teaching], not only because it is wholesome, but above all because a failure to take that opinion seriously prevents one from doing justice to what is truly admirable in Machiavelli: the intrepidity of his thought, the grandeur of his vision, and the graceful subtlety of his speech." This critique of the founder of modern political philosophy by this prominent twentieth-century scholar is an essential text for students of both authors.