Author: Robert Kocis
Publisher: Lehigh University Press
ISBN: 9780934223423
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
"The true Machiavelli is not to be found in extremist interpretations. The fault for these misperceptions is partly his own: he spoke in provocative paradoxes to challenge sacred truths, and this makes it easy for observers to ignore the obvious. In this portrait, the obvious dominates our vision, and he emerges as a Renaissance humanist. Like all of us, Machiavelli was a flawed being with strains of greatness mixed with baser ingredients. But his political insights and recognition of the emergence of a new reality qualify him as a political genius. Neither devil nor saint, Machiavelli has languished too long in the Purgatory of the human imagination and deserves redemption."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Machiavelli Redeemed
Author: Robert Kocis
Publisher: Lehigh University Press
ISBN: 9780934223423
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
"The true Machiavelli is not to be found in extremist interpretations. The fault for these misperceptions is partly his own: he spoke in provocative paradoxes to challenge sacred truths, and this makes it easy for observers to ignore the obvious. In this portrait, the obvious dominates our vision, and he emerges as a Renaissance humanist. Like all of us, Machiavelli was a flawed being with strains of greatness mixed with baser ingredients. But his political insights and recognition of the emergence of a new reality qualify him as a political genius. Neither devil nor saint, Machiavelli has languished too long in the Purgatory of the human imagination and deserves redemption."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Publisher: Lehigh University Press
ISBN: 9780934223423
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
"The true Machiavelli is not to be found in extremist interpretations. The fault for these misperceptions is partly his own: he spoke in provocative paradoxes to challenge sacred truths, and this makes it easy for observers to ignore the obvious. In this portrait, the obvious dominates our vision, and he emerges as a Renaissance humanist. Like all of us, Machiavelli was a flawed being with strains of greatness mixed with baser ingredients. But his political insights and recognition of the emergence of a new reality qualify him as a political genius. Neither devil nor saint, Machiavelli has languished too long in the Purgatory of the human imagination and deserves redemption."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Redeeming The Prince
Author: Maurizio Viroli
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691168598
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 206
Book Description
A fresh introduction to—and bold new interpretation of—Machiavelli's Prince In Redeeming "The Prince," one of the world's leading Machiavelli scholars puts forth a startling new interpretation of arguably the most influential but widely misunderstood book in the Western political tradition. Overturning popular misconceptions and challenging scholarly consensus, Maurizio Viroli also provides a fresh introduction to the work. Seen from this original perspective, five centuries after its composition, The Prince offers new insights into the nature and possibilities of political liberation. Rather than a bible of unscrupulous politics, The Prince, Viroli argues, is actually about political redemption—a book motivated by Machiavelli's patriotic desire to see a new founding for Italy. Written in the form of an oration, following the rules of classical rhetoric, the book condenses its main message in the final section, "Exhortation to liberate Italy from the Barbarians." There Machiavelli creates the myth of a redeemer, an ideal ruler who ushers in an era of peace, freedom, and unity. Contrary to scholars who maintain that the exhortation was added later, Viroli proves that Machiavelli composed it along with the rest of the text, completing the whole by December 1513 or early 1514. Only if we read The Prince as a theory of political redemption, Viroli contends, can we at last understand, and properly evaluate, the book's most controversial pages on political morality, as well as put to rest the cliché of Machiavelli as a "Machiavellian." Bold, clear, and provocative, Redeeming "The Prince" should permanently change how Machiavelli and his masterpiece are understood.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691168598
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 206
Book Description
A fresh introduction to—and bold new interpretation of—Machiavelli's Prince In Redeeming "The Prince," one of the world's leading Machiavelli scholars puts forth a startling new interpretation of arguably the most influential but widely misunderstood book in the Western political tradition. Overturning popular misconceptions and challenging scholarly consensus, Maurizio Viroli also provides a fresh introduction to the work. Seen from this original perspective, five centuries after its composition, The Prince offers new insights into the nature and possibilities of political liberation. Rather than a bible of unscrupulous politics, The Prince, Viroli argues, is actually about political redemption—a book motivated by Machiavelli's patriotic desire to see a new founding for Italy. Written in the form of an oration, following the rules of classical rhetoric, the book condenses its main message in the final section, "Exhortation to liberate Italy from the Barbarians." There Machiavelli creates the myth of a redeemer, an ideal ruler who ushers in an era of peace, freedom, and unity. Contrary to scholars who maintain that the exhortation was added later, Viroli proves that Machiavelli composed it along with the rest of the text, completing the whole by December 1513 or early 1514. Only if we read The Prince as a theory of political redemption, Viroli contends, can we at last understand, and properly evaluate, the book's most controversial pages on political morality, as well as put to rest the cliché of Machiavelli as a "Machiavellian." Bold, clear, and provocative, Redeeming "The Prince" should permanently change how Machiavelli and his masterpiece are understood.
The History of Evil in the Early Modern Age
Author: Daniel Robinson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351138464
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 334
Book Description
The third volume of The History of Evil encompasses the early modern era from 1450–1700. This revolutionary period exhibited immense change in both secular knowledge and sacred understanding. It saw the fall of Constantinople and the rise of religious violence, the burning of witches and the drowning of Anabaptists, the ill treatment of indigenous peoples from Africa to the Americas, the reframing of formal authorities in religion, philosophy, and science, and it produced profound reflection on good and evil in the genius of Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, Teresa of Avila, and the Cambridge Platonists. This superb treatment of the history of evil during a formative period of the early modern era will appeal to those with interests in philosophy, theology, social and political history, and the history of ideas.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351138464
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 334
Book Description
The third volume of The History of Evil encompasses the early modern era from 1450–1700. This revolutionary period exhibited immense change in both secular knowledge and sacred understanding. It saw the fall of Constantinople and the rise of religious violence, the burning of witches and the drowning of Anabaptists, the ill treatment of indigenous peoples from Africa to the Americas, the reframing of formal authorities in religion, philosophy, and science, and it produced profound reflection on good and evil in the genius of Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, Teresa of Avila, and the Cambridge Platonists. This superb treatment of the history of evil during a formative period of the early modern era will appeal to those with interests in philosophy, theology, social and political history, and the history of ideas.
Thoughts on Machiavelli
Author: Leo Strauss
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022623097X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 350
Book Description
The esteemed philosopher’s assessment of good, evil, and the value of Machiavelli. 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 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.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022623097X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 350
Book Description
The esteemed philosopher’s assessment of good, evil, and the value of Machiavelli. 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 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.
Masters and Slaves
Author: Michael Palmer
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739102770
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 182
Book Description
This collection of essays sheds light on the writings of leading figures in the history of political philosophy by exploring a nexus of questions concerning mastery and slavery in the human soul. To this end, Masters and Slaves elucidates archetypal human alternatives in their import for political life: the philosopher and king; the lover of wisdom and the lover of glory; the king and the tyrant; and finally, the master and the slave. Palmer re-examines these ideas as a framework for achieving a deeper understanding of the work of famous thinkers--from the ancient to modern times--including Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Rousseau. As well, the book addresses distinctions between the 'ancients' and the 'moderns, ' and touches on the work of contemporary theorists such as Leo Strauss, George Parkin Grant, and Allan Bloom.
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739102770
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 182
Book Description
This collection of essays sheds light on the writings of leading figures in the history of political philosophy by exploring a nexus of questions concerning mastery and slavery in the human soul. To this end, Masters and Slaves elucidates archetypal human alternatives in their import for political life: the philosopher and king; the lover of wisdom and the lover of glory; the king and the tyrant; and finally, the master and the slave. Palmer re-examines these ideas as a framework for achieving a deeper understanding of the work of famous thinkers--from the ancient to modern times--including Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Rousseau. As well, the book addresses distinctions between the 'ancients' and the 'moderns, ' and touches on the work of contemporary theorists such as Leo Strauss, George Parkin Grant, and Allan Bloom.
Ambition, A History
Author: William Casey King
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300182805
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
Looks at how ambition, once considered a vice, became a celebrated virtue that defines American character.
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300182805
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
Looks at how ambition, once considered a vice, became a celebrated virtue that defines American character.
The Way to Hell
Author: Nathan Crick
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817361588
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
"We are living in Machiavellian times, argues Nathan Crick in The Way to Hell: Machiavelli for Catastrophic Times. Just as Machiavelli warned in the closing chapter of the Prince, a foreboding sense of catastrophe encroaches upon our daily lives from every corner - political, cultural, environmental, and viral, forces not unlike the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that were familiar characters in the daily lives of Machiavelli's Renaissance contemporaries, and which feature in the headlines that greet us every morning. Where catastrophe looms, Machiavelli inevitably follows. Drawing from the insights contained in Machiavelli's collected works, Crick interprets Machiavelli's political thought by first applying it to his own time and then our own, exploring the different paths we might choose when trying to avoid the hellish outcomes - environmental, economic, and political-that feel as if they are increasingly inevitable. Here Crick explores key questions in Machiavelli's writing with pragmatic sensibility and an open mind. When is force and fraud necessary to defend democracy? Is cruelty ever justified? When does social protest slip into violent revolution? What is the relationship between politics and propaganda? Can we have both good and effective leaders in times of crisis? And how does catastrophe bring out the comedy and tragedy of life? In our effort to avoid the way to Hell, we must confront difficult questions and make hard choices. The Way to Hell contributes not only to our understanding of Machiavelli but to our ability to meet the challenges ahead with forethought and courage"--
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817361588
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 264
Book Description
"We are living in Machiavellian times, argues Nathan Crick in The Way to Hell: Machiavelli for Catastrophic Times. Just as Machiavelli warned in the closing chapter of the Prince, a foreboding sense of catastrophe encroaches upon our daily lives from every corner - political, cultural, environmental, and viral, forces not unlike the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that were familiar characters in the daily lives of Machiavelli's Renaissance contemporaries, and which feature in the headlines that greet us every morning. Where catastrophe looms, Machiavelli inevitably follows. Drawing from the insights contained in Machiavelli's collected works, Crick interprets Machiavelli's political thought by first applying it to his own time and then our own, exploring the different paths we might choose when trying to avoid the hellish outcomes - environmental, economic, and political-that feel as if they are increasingly inevitable. Here Crick explores key questions in Machiavelli's writing with pragmatic sensibility and an open mind. When is force and fraud necessary to defend democracy? Is cruelty ever justified? When does social protest slip into violent revolution? What is the relationship between politics and propaganda? Can we have both good and effective leaders in times of crisis? And how does catastrophe bring out the comedy and tragedy of life? In our effort to avoid the way to Hell, we must confront difficult questions and make hard choices. The Way to Hell contributes not only to our understanding of Machiavelli but to our ability to meet the challenges ahead with forethought and courage"--
The Moral Leader
Author: Sandra J. Sucher
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113414606X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
Successful leaders at any level and in any arena are inevitably presented with moral and ethical choices. This unique and innovative textbook is designed to encourage students and managers to confront those fundamental moral challenges, to develop skills in moral analysis and judgment, and to come to terms with their own definition of moral lea
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113414606X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
Successful leaders at any level and in any arena are inevitably presented with moral and ethical choices. This unique and innovative textbook is designed to encourage students and managers to confront those fundamental moral challenges, to develop skills in moral analysis and judgment, and to come to terms with their own definition of moral lea
On the History of Political Philosophy
Author: W Julian Korab-Karpowicz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317346009
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295
Book Description
Intended for use in courses on political philosophy or the history of political philosophy, On the History of Political Philosophy provides a critical account of Western political philosophy from classical Greece to modern times. Demonstrating the continued relevance of historical ideas to today's problems, the author traces ongoing discussions about justice, power, and human nature by examining the ideas of key political theorists.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317346009
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295
Book Description
Intended for use in courses on political philosophy or the history of political philosophy, On the History of Political Philosophy provides a critical account of Western political philosophy from classical Greece to modern times. Demonstrating the continued relevance of historical ideas to today's problems, the author traces ongoing discussions about justice, power, and human nature by examining the ideas of key political theorists.
Machiavelli and Empire
Author: Mikael Hörnqvist
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139456342
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323
Book Description
Mikael Hörnqvist challenges us to rethink the overall meaning and importance of Machiavelli's political thinking. Machiavelli and Empire combines close textual analysis of The Prince and The Discourses with a broad historical approach, to establish the importance of empire-building and imperial strategy in Machiavelli's thought. The primary context of Machiavelli's work, Hörnqvist argues, is not the mirror-for-princes genre or medieval and Renaissance republicanism in general, but a tradition of Florentine imperialist republicanism dating back to the late thirteenth-century, based on the twin notions of liberty at home and empire abroad. Weaving together themes and topics drawn from contemporary Florentine political debate, Medicean ritual and Renaissance triumphalism, this study explores how Machiavelli in his chancery writings and theoretical works promoted the long standing aspirations of Florence to become a great and expanding empire, modelled on the example of the ancient Roman republic. This is a distinctive and important work.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139456342
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323
Book Description
Mikael Hörnqvist challenges us to rethink the overall meaning and importance of Machiavelli's political thinking. Machiavelli and Empire combines close textual analysis of The Prince and The Discourses with a broad historical approach, to establish the importance of empire-building and imperial strategy in Machiavelli's thought. The primary context of Machiavelli's work, Hörnqvist argues, is not the mirror-for-princes genre or medieval and Renaissance republicanism in general, but a tradition of Florentine imperialist republicanism dating back to the late thirteenth-century, based on the twin notions of liberty at home and empire abroad. Weaving together themes and topics drawn from contemporary Florentine political debate, Medicean ritual and Renaissance triumphalism, this study explores how Machiavelli in his chancery writings and theoretical works promoted the long standing aspirations of Florence to become a great and expanding empire, modelled on the example of the ancient Roman republic. This is a distinctive and important work.