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Machiavelli

Niccol Machiavelli

(1469-1527 )

Life and Works . . The Prince . . Leadership Bibliography Internet Sources

In 1498, Niccol Machiavelli began his career as an activepolitician in the independent city-state of Florence, engaging indiplomatic missions through France and Germany as well as Italy.After more than a decade of public service, he was driven from hispost when the republic collapsed. Repeated efforts to win the

confidence and approval of the new regime were unsuccessful, andMachiavelli was forced into retirement and a life of detachedscholarship about the political process instead of directparticipation in it. The books for which he is remembered werepublished only after his death.

Machiavelli originally wrote PrincipeStatue of Machiavelli (The Prince)

(1513) in hopes of securing the favor of the ruling Medici family,and he deliberately made its claims provocative. The Prince is anintensely practical guide to the exercise of raw political powerover a Renaissance principality. Allowing for the unpredictableinfluence of fortune, Machiavelli argued that it is primarily thecharacter or vitality or skill of the individual leader that determines the success of any state. Thebook surveys various bold means of acquiring and maintaining theprincipality and evaluates each of them solelyby reference to its likelihood of augmenting the glory of the princewhile serving the public interest. It is this focus on practicalsuccess by any means, even at the expense of traditional moralvalues , that earned Machiavelli's scheme a

reputation for ruthlessness, deception, and cruelty.

His Dell'arte della guerra (The Art of War) (1520) Machiavelli

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explains in detail effective procedures for the acquisition,maintenance, and use of a military force. Even in his more leisurelyreflections on the political process, Machiavelli often wrote in asimilar vein. The Discorsi sopra la prima Deca di Tito Livio(Discourses on Livy )(1531) review the history of the Roman republic, with greateremphasis on the role of fortune and a clear admiration for

republican government . Here, too, however,Machiavelli's conception of the proper application of morality topractical political life is one that judges the skill of allparticipants in terms of the efficacy with which they achieve nobleends. Whatever the form of government, Machiavelli held, onlysuccess and glory really matter.

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*Recommended Reading:*

*Primary sources:*

* Niccol Machiavelli, Opere, ed. by Sergio Bertelli and FrancoGaeta (Feltrinelli, 1960- )

* Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, tr. by George Bull (Penguin,1999) {Order from Amazon.com}

* Niccolo Machiavelli, Discourses, tr. by Leslie J. Walker andBernard Crick (Viking, 1985) {Order from Amazon.com}

*Secondary sources:*

* Machiavelli, ed. by Maurizio Viroli (Oxford, 1998) {Order fromAmazon.com}

* Harvey Claflin Mansfield, Machiavelli's Virtue (Chicago, 1998){Order from Amazon.com}

* Leo Strauss, Thoughts on Machiavelli (Chicago, 1995) {Order fromAmazon.com}

*Additional on-line information about Machiavelli includes:*

* Philip Grose's excellent * collection of links about Machiavelli.

* Interesting pages from virtuSens.

* The article in the Columbia Encyclopedia at Bartleby.com.

* The thorough collection of resources at EpistemeLinks.com.

* A brief article in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

* The entry at Biography.com.

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1996-2006 Garth Kemerling.Last modified 9 August 2006.Questions, comments, and suggestions may be sent to: theContact Page.