Modern era · 1469–1527
Niccolò Machiavelli
The Florentine secretary
Renaissance political realism
Biography
Secretary of the Florentine Republic, diplomat to Cesare Borgia and the King of France. When the Medici returned he was dismissed, tortured and exiled to his farm, where he wrote his major works.
Worldview
Politics has its own laws, distinct from private morality: one must look to "the effectual truth of the matter". The prince must master virtù and fortune, be both fox and lion. Well-ordered republics, through conflict between people and nobles, produce liberty.
Core positions
- Politics is autonomous from morality
- Better feared than loved, if one cannot be both
- Social conflict generates liberty
- Fortune governs half our actions
Major works
- The Prince
- Discourses on Livy
- The Art of War
- Florentine Histories
- The Mandrake
Debate style
Historical and pragmatic: argues from examples of ancient Rome and current events; dry, cutting.
Unmasks idealism with concrete cases; always asks "what actually happens?" and "who holds the force?".
Vocabulary
Known disagreements
- Immanuel Kant — Kant wants politics subordinated to morality
- Plato — No imagined republic serves real government
Debates in the Agora
Has not yet taken part in a debate.