Niccolò Machiavelli
For Machiavelli, politics has its own rules: a ruler who wants to keep the state must be ready to act against morality when necessary.
Placement
Politics follows its own logic of power: the prince must learn to be able not to be good when necessary.
Key ideas
- Virtù and Fortuna
- Political necessity (necessità)
- Republicanism
Influence
Influenced by 1
Lucretius
influenced by
Machiavelli copied out Lucretius’ De rerum natura by hand in the late 1490s, and some scholars trace Epicurean themes in his view of chance and religion. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ms. Rossi 884; A. Brown, The Return of Lucretius to Renaissance Florence (2010)
Evidence: AI draft
Lucretius › c. 99–55 BCE
Influenced 8
Thomas Hobbes
influenced disputed
The link is disputed; it rests on three discourses in Horae Subsecivae (1620), attributed to the young Hobbes by computer analysis, which read Tacitus in a Machiavellian vein. N. B. Reynolds and A. W. Saxonhouse (eds.), Thomas Hobbes: Three Discourses (1995); Horae Subsecivae (1620)
Evidence: AI draft
Thomas Hobbes › 1588–1679
Baruch de Spinoza
influenced ✓
In the Political Treatise (1677) Spinoza called Machiavelli ‘most acute’ and suggested The Prince may have meant to warn a free people against entrusting itself to one ruler. B. Spinoza, Tractatus politicus (1677); SEP “Spinoza’s Political Philosophy”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Baruch de Spinoza › 1632–1677
Montesquieu
influenced
In Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans (1734) Montesquieu shared Machiavelli’s thesis from the Discourses that internal dissensions helped preserve Roman liberty. Montesquieu, Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence (1734); Dictionnaire Montesquieu (ENS Lyon), “Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains”
Evidence: AI draft
Montesquieu › 1689–1755
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
influenced
In The Social Contract (1762) Rousseau read Machiavelli as a republican who, under the guise of instructing kings, gave peoples great lessons: The Prince is ‘the book of republicans’. J.-J. Rousseau, Du contrat social (1762), “De la monarchie”; SEP “Niccolò Machiavelli”
Evidence: AI draft
Jean-Jacques Rousseau › 1712–1778
Carl Schmitt
influenced ✓
Schmitt began his history of dictatorship with Machiavelli, reading The Prince as a technical treatise on state power (Die Diktatur, 1921). C. Schmitt, Die Diktatur (1921); SEP “Carl Schmitt”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Carl Schmitt › 1888–1985
Antonio Gramsci
influenced ✓
Gramsci read The Prince as a ‘living book’ that personifies a collective will and called the political party the ‘modern Prince’ (Notebook 13, 1932–34). A. Gramsci, Quaderni del carcere, Notebook 13 (1932–34), “Noterelle sulla politica del Machiavelli”, ed. V. Gerratana (1975)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Antonio Gramsci › 1891–1937
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Justus Lipsius
influenced
In Politica IV (1589) Lipsius admitted a ‘mixed prudence’, allowing some deceit in the state’s interest, in explicit dialogue with Machiavelli. J. Lipsius, Politicorum sive civilis doctrinae libri sex (1589), book IV; J. Waszink (ed.), Politica (2004), introduction
Evidence: AI draft
Justus Lipsius › 1547–1606
Francis Bacon
influenced
In The Advancement of Learning (1605) Bacon wrote ‘we are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do’. F. Bacon, The Advancement of Learning (1605), Book II; SEP “Francis Bacon”
Evidence: AI draft
Francis Bacon › 1561–1626
Criticism
Criticized by 1
Tommaso Campanella
criticised by
Campanella charged that Machiavelli’s reason of state makes religion a mere instrument of rule and so leads to atheism (Atheismus triumphatus, Rome 1631). T. Campanella, Atheismus triumphatus, Rome 1631
Evidence: AI draft
Tommaso Campanella › 1568–1639
Criticizes 1
Cicero
criticised
Machiavelli inverted Cicero’s De officiis: a prince must know how to use the beast as well as the man, both fox and lion (The Prince, 1513). N. Machiavelli, Il Principe (1513), chs. 15–18; Cicero, De officiis I.34, I.41; Q. Skinner, Machiavelli, 1981
Evidence: AI draft
Cicero › 106–43 BCE
Works
- 1513The Prince
How to acquire and keep power – the fox and the lion instead of Ciceronian virtue.
Republican liberty, exemplified by ancient Rome.
Position
Machiavelli looked at politics as it is, not as it ought to be. A ruler who always wants to be good will come to ruin among so many who are not, so he must learn to be “not good” when necessity demands it. Success depends on virtù – energy, skill and decisiveness – in the face of fortuna, the unpredictable force of circumstance. Yet his Discourses on Livy show him as a convinced republican who admired the freedom and civic spirit of ancient Rome and saw conflict between nobles and people as a source of liberty. Because he separated political judgement from conventional morality, he is often regarded as a founder of modern political science.
Life & context
Born in Florence in 1469, Machiavelli served the Florentine Republic from 1498 as secretary and diplomat, observing kings, popes and Cesare Borgia at close range. When the Medici returned in 1512 he lost his post, was imprisoned and tortured, and withdrew to his farm near San Casciano, where he wrote his major works. He died in Florence in 1527.
Further main works
- The Mandrake (c. 1518)
- The Art of War (1521)
- Florentine Histories (1525)
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