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Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli
(1469-1527 <../dy/zt.htm#15>)
Life and Works <#top>
. . The Prince <../hy/3v.htm#prince>
. . Leadership <../hy/3v.htm#lead>
Bibliography <#bib>
Internet Sources <#links>
In 1498, Niccolò Machiavelli began his career as an active
politician in the independent city-state of Florence, engaging in
diplomatic missions through France and Germany as well as Italy.
After more than a decade of public service, he was driven from his
post when the republic collapsed. Repeated efforts to win the
confidence and approval of the new regime were unsuccessful, and
Machiavelli was forced into retirement and a life of detached
scholarship about the political process instead of direct
participation in it. The books for which he is remembered were
published only after his death.
Machiavelli originally wrote Principe
<http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/m/machiavelli/principe/html/sommario.ht
m>
Statue of Machiavelli (The Prince
<http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/academic/digitexts/machiavelli/the_prince/title
.html>)
(1513) in hopes of securing the favor of the ruling Medici family,
and he deliberately made its claims provocative. The Prince is an
intensely practical guide to the exercise of raw political power
over a Renaissance principality. Allowing for the unpredictable
influence of fortune, Machiavelli argued that it is primarily the
character or vitality or skill of the individual leader
<../hy/3v.htm#lead> that determines the success of any state. The
book surveys various bold means of acquiring and maintaining the
principality <../hy/3v.htm#prince> and evaluates each of them solely
by reference to its likelihood of augmenting the glory of the prince
while serving the public interest. It is this focus on practical
success by any means, even at the expense of traditional moral
values <../dy/e9.htm#eth>, that earned Machiavelli's scheme a
reputation for ruthlessness, deception, and cruelty.
His Dell'arte della guerra (The Art of War) (1520) Machiavelli
 explains in detail effective procedures for the acquisition,
maintenance, and use of a military force. Even in his more leisurely
reflections on the political process, Machiavelli often wrote in a
similar vein. The Discorsi sopra la prima Deca di Tito Livio
(Discourses on Livy <http://www.constitution.org/mac/disclivy_.htm>)
(1531) review the history of the Roman republic, with greater
emphasis on the role of fortune and a clear admiration for
republican government <../hy/3v.htm#disc>. Here, too, however,
Machiavelli's conception of the proper application of morality to
practical political life is one that judges the skill of all
participants in terms of the efficacy with which they achieve noble
ends. Whatever the form of government, Machiavelli held, only
success and glory really matter.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Recommended Reading:*
*Primary sources:*
* Niccolò Machiavelli, Opere, ed. by Sergio Bertelli and Franco
Gaeta (Feltrinelli, 1960- )
* Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, tr. by George Bull (Penguin,
1999) {Order from Amazon.com
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140447520/philosophypages>}
* Niccolo Machiavelli, Discourses, tr. by Leslie J. Walker and
Bernard Crick (Viking, 1985) {Order from Amazon.com
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140444289/philosophypages>}
*Secondary sources:*
* Machiavelli, ed. by Maurizio Viroli (Oxford, 1998) {Order from
Amazon.com
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0198780893/philosophypages>}
* Harvey Claflin Mansfield, Machiavelli's Virtue (Chicago, 1998)
{Order from Amazon.com
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226503690/philosophypages>}
* Leo Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli (Chicago, 1995) {Order from
Amazon.com
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226777022/philosophypages>}
*Additional on-line information about Machiavelli includes:*
* Philip Grose's excellent * collection of links
<http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~pgrose/mach/> about Machiavelli.
* Interesting pages from virtuSens
<http://www.niccolo-machiavelli.de/>.
* The article in the Columbia Encyclopedia
<http://www.bartleby.com/65/ma/Machiave.html> at Bartleby.com.
* The thorough collection of resources at EpistemeLinks.com
<http://www.epistemelinks.com/Main/Philosophers.aspx?PhilCode=Mach>.
* A brief article in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
<http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/m/machiave.htm>.
* The entry at Biography.com
<http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=5985>.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Last modified 9 August 2006.
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