In Search of a Lost Archipelago

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurelian Craiutu
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
David Hume ◽  
Niccolo Machiavelli ◽  
Blaise Pascal ◽  
Michel De Montaigne ◽  
Niccolò Machiavelli ◽  
Ethical Concept ◽  
History Of

This chapter examines different visions of moderation in the history of French political thought. It first considers the reluctance to theorize about moderation, in part because moderation has often been understood as a vague virtue. It then discusses moderation in the classical and Christian traditions, focusing on the works of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero, followed by an analysis of the writings of sixteenth-century political thinkers such as Niccolò Machiavelli, Claude de Seyssel, Louis Le Roy, Étienne Pasquier, Michel de Montaigne, Blaise Pascal, and French moralists such as La Bruyère and François de La Rochefoucauld. It also describes the transformation of moderation from a predominantly ethical concept into a prominent political virtue. Finally, it explores the views of authors such as David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau on fanaticism in relation to moderation.

scholarly journals The Use ofKairosin Renaissance Political Philosophy*

2014 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne Paul
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
Important Concept ◽  
Niccolò Machiavelli ◽  
Greek Tradition ◽  
History Of

AbstractAlthough the Greek concept ofkairos (καιρός)has undergone a recent renewal of interest among scholars of Renaissance rhetoric, this revival has not yet been paralleled by its reception into the history of political thought. This article examines the meanings and uses of this important concept within the ancient Greek tradition, particularly in the works of Isocrates and Plutarch, in order to understand how it is employed by two of the most important political thinkers of the sixteenth century: Thomas Elyot and Niccolò Machiavelli. Through such an investigation this paper argues that an appreciation of the concept ofkairosand its use by Renaissance political writers provides a fuller understanding of the political philosophy of the period.

Włoscy utopiści epoki nowożytnej (Machiavelli, Botero, Campanella) w polskich badaniach naukowych XX i przełomu XX i XXI wieku

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (247) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Bielański
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Niccolo Machiavelli ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Niccolò Machiavelli ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Utopian Thought ◽  
Modern Era

The author of the article analyzes the place and importance of the works of Italian utopiansfrom the modern era (such as Niccolò Machiavelli, Tommaso Campanella and Giovanni Botero)in Polish research from the range of the history of political thought from the 20th and the turnof 20th and 21st centuries. The first works dedicated to the aforementioned political thinkersfrom the 16th and 17th centuries by Bolesław Limanowski and Aleksander Świętochowski andthe publications from the interwar period were the starting point of the research. They werepresented much broader – also because of the appearance of the translations of the utopiansfrom the modern era in the 1940s and 1950s. Much interest – before 1956 – was attracted tothe concepts by Campanella, included in his famous work, City of the Sun. In the later times theimportant place in the Polish research on the history of Italian political thought was taken bythe content and expression of Niccolò Machiavelli, especially those fragments of The Prince,which show signs of utopian thought. Much interest was also brought to the works of GiovanniBotero, the author who was the first to use the term “reason of state” and who also proposedthe utopia of “universal monarchy”. The final part is dedicated to the reflections on theItalian utopians of the modern era (but also influencing the modern utopias and dystopias –for example Orwell) by such Polish researchers as e.g. Jerzy Szacki, Janusz Tazbir, LeszekKołakowski, Bohdan Szlachta, Marcin Król, Monika Brzóstowicz-Klajn or Andrzej Dróżdż. Inthe context of the reflections on the possible negative influence of the work of utopians, it isworth to remind the significant observation by J. Baszkiewicz, who thought that “politicalreflection is not always conducted innocently. Political ideas can bring socially beneficialeffects, but they also can become a cause for destructive actions and severe havoc”.Key words: Italian utopians of the Renaissance, history of political thought, state of scientificresearch

Machiavelli’s Commonwealth without Justice

2021 ◽  
pp. 63-88
Author(s):  
Michael C. Hawley
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Niccolo Machiavelli ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
Niccolò Machiavelli ◽  
History Of

This chapter illustrates the fundamental divergence between the republican visions of Cicero and those of Niccolò Machiavelli. It demonstrates that Machiavelli does not share Cicero’s vision for a just commonwealth and should not be considered an heir to his strain of republican thought. The chapter also argues that Machiavelli moves further away from what would later become known as liberalism. He rejects the Ciceronian account of natural law, and his regime leaves no room for rights, consent, or the constitutional limitations on power that characterize Cicero’s thought. Machiavelli represents a failed challenge to the Ciceronian tradition. The chapter challenges long-standing accounts of Machiavelli’s place in the history of political thought.

The Political Realism of the Egyptian Elite: A Comparison between The Teaching For Merikare and Niccolò Machiavelli’s Il Principe

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Langer
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Moral Realism ◽  
Niccolo Machiavelli ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
Niccolò Machiavelli ◽  
Essential Properties ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Masses

A comparison between The Teaching for Merikare and Niccolò Machiavelli’s Il Principe produces some astonishing results. While Machiavelli’s treatise is generally thought to be representative of the dawn of modern Western political realism, its essential properties are already present in Merikare. This includes the firm belief in strong authority, the fallibility of man, the need to appease the masses, and, if necessary, the demand to repress any developing threat to the power of the elite. In terms of the history of political thought Merikare is placed between the works of the moral realism of Greek philosophers like Plato and the political realism of Thucydides and Machiavelli. With the latter being heavily influenced by ancient authors, questions regarding the genesis of Greek political thought can be asked. It may well be that Greek political thought was, at least indirectly, influenced by Egyptian political thought.

Conclusion

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary Gatti
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
John Milton ◽  
European Society ◽  
Niccolo Machiavelli ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Niccolò Machiavelli

This concluding chapter reflects on the historical foundation on which the modern discourse of liberty and toleration is based. It looks back to “the long sixteenth century,” the period between 1500 and approximately 1650—specifically between the time of Niccolò Machiavelli and John Milton—during which the principal concepts and themes concerning liberty in the modern world began to emerge against a background of unprecedented violence and oppression. At this time a series of dramatic crises that altered the map of European society and culture, bringing about changes so radical and lasting that all the values that had guided the previous centuries had to be recast in entirely different and unfamiliar molds.

Lexical and Conceptual Arguments and Historical Reading: on the History of SELF

Paragraph ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-142
Author(s):  
James Helgeson
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Theoretical Discussion ◽  
Michel De Montaigne ◽  
Conceptual Schemes ◽  
French And English ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cognitive Study ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The terms ‘self’ and ‘moi’ appeared within the lexica of French and English at the end of the sixteenth century, for example in Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. This paper takes a sceptical approach to lexical arguments about the history of the self and SELF-concepts. Initially, the relationship of SELF to the question of ‘paradigms’ and ‘conceptual schemes’ is discussed via recent work in developmental psychology (Susan Carey) and classic discussions within analytic philosophy (Donald Davidson). The questions raised in the theoretical discussion are then re-examined through short readings of texts that do not contain lexicalized SELF-vocabulary, by the sixteenth-century French writers Maurice Scève and Michel de Montaigne. It is suggested that the importance of lexical arguments to the history of selves and SELF-concepts has been exaggerated, and that cognitive study has the potential to transform the study of the first-person stance and its history.

scholarly journals Niccolò Machiavelli: klasyczny realizm i republikanizm

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-119
Author(s):  
Tomasz Raburski
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Western Culture ◽  
Niccolo Machiavelli ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
Founding Father ◽  
Niccolò Machiavelli

Article presents life and ideas of Niccolò Machiavelli. Machiavelli is placed in the context of his times. His influence on the development of modern political thought is examined. The examples of his wider impact on western culture are given. Machiavelli is described as a founding father of two strands of political philosophy: political realism and republicanism.

The Opinion of Mankind

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Sagar
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
David Hume ◽  
State Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Scottish Enlightenment ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
History Of

What is the modern state? Conspicuously undertheorized in recent political theory, this question persistently animated the best minds of the Enlightenment. Recovering David Hume and Adam Smith's underappreciated contributions to the history of political thought, this book considers how, following Thomas Hobbes's epochal intervention in the mid-seventeenth century, subsequent thinkers grappled with explaining how the state came into being, what it fundamentally might be, and how it could claim rightful authority over those subject to its power. Hobbes has cast a long shadow over Western political thought, particularly regarding the theory of the state. This book shows how Hume and Smith, the two leading lights of the Scottish Enlightenment, forged an alternative way of thinking about the organization of modern politics. They did this in part by going back to the foundations: rejecting Hobbes's vision of human nature and his arguments about our capacity to form stable societies over time. In turn, this was harnessed to a deep reconceptualization of how to think philosophically about politics in a secular world. The result was an emphasis on the “opinion of mankind,” the necessary psychological basis of all political organization. Demonstrating how Hume and Smith broke away from Hobbesian state theory, the book suggests ways in which these thinkers might shape how we think about politics today, and in turn how we might construct better political theory.

Roman Colonies and the Distribution of Land before Sigonio

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-47
Author(s):  
William Stenhouse
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
New World ◽  
Niccolo Machiavelli ◽  
Niccolò Machiavelli ◽  
Carlo Sigonio ◽  
Humanist Tradition ◽  
Colonial Policies ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
Made In

This chapter examines the work of Renaissance historians of Roman colonization before Carlo Sigonio, from Andrea Fiocchi to Niccolò Machiavelli and Onofrio Panvinio. It shows that these earlier scholars, by thinking about Roman colonialism against the backdrop of Hapsburg power in Europe and in the New World, explored the idea of an empire that could be understood not just in terms of power but also in terms of territory, geographical control, and the practical administration of conquered land. Analysing the gradual rediscovery of the ancient Roman empire and its institutions in the fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth century, this chapter assesses the most significant advances that Sigonio made in respect to this humanist tradition. Sigonio added a crucial piece of evidence to the discourse on Roman colonial policies and linked historical discussions of agrarian laws and policy to historical accounts of the establishment of colonies.

Ambivalente Ausnahmedenker. Carlo Ginzburgs Studien zum «Nondimanco»

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-127
Author(s):  
Ulrich van Loyen
Keyword(s):  
Niccolo Machiavelli ◽  
Blaise Pascal ◽  
Niccolò Machiavelli

Carlo Ginzburgs jüngstes Buch widmet sich zwei Autoren, die ferner von einander kaum gedacht werden können: dem Florentiner Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527), der glaubte, die Fürsten führen zu können, indem er ihr Handeln als Staatskunst nobilitierte, und Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), der den «Gott der Philosophen» bekämpfte und den Eigennutz der kasuistischen Rede entlarvte. Machiavelli wurde zum Synonym für machtpolitischen Zynismus; Pascal zu einem Existenzialisten avant la lettre. Und doch führt Ginzberg die beiden unter der Konjunktion des «Nondimanco», des «Nichtsdestoweniger» zusammen, mit der im Principe (1532) allgemeine Charakterisierungen um die «Ausnahme» erweitert werden.

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