1978, ISBN: 9780226777023

University, of Chicago Press, 348 Seiten / p. kart. / Paperback. Ein gutes und sauberes Exemplar / a good and clean copy - Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- The Twofold Character of … More...

University, of Chicago Press, 348 Seiten / p. kart. / Paperback. Ein gutes und sauberes Exemplar / a good and clean copy - Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- The Twofold Character of Machiavelli?s Teaching Machiavelli?s Intention: The Prince -- Machiavelli?s Intention: The Discourses Machiavelli?s Teaching -- Notes -- Index -- Introduction -- We shall not shock anyone, we shall merely V V expose ourselves to good-natured or at any rate harmless ridicule, if we profess ourselves inclined to the old-fashioned and simple opinion according to which Machiavelli was a teacher of evil. Indeed, what other description would fit a man who teaches lessons like these: princes ought to exterminate the families of rulers whose territory they wish to possess securely; princes ought to murder their opponents rather than to confiscate their property since those who have been robbed, but not those who are dead, can think of revenge; men forget the murder of their fathers sooner than the loss of their patrimony; true liberality consists in being stingy with one?s own property and in being generous with what belongs to others; not virtue but the prudent use of virtue and vice leads to happiness; injuries ought all to be done together so that, being tasted less, they will hurt less, while benefits ought to be conferred little by little, so that they will be felt more strongly; a victorious general who fears that his prince might not reward him properly, may punish him for his anticipated ingratitude by raising the flag of rebellion; if one has to choose between inflicting severe injuries and inflicting light injuries, one ought to inflict severe injuries; one ought not to say to someone whom one wants to kill ??Give me your gun, I want to kill you with it,? but merely, ?Give me your gun,? for once you have the gun in your hand, you can satisfy your desire. If it is true that only an evil man will stoop to teach maxims of public and private gangsterism, we are forced to say that Machiavelli was an evil man. ISBN 9780226777023Philosophie 1978, [PU: University of Chicago Press]<

ISBN: 9780226777023

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… More...

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 the 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". Strauss himself was sensitive to that "subtlety of speech", and responded to it in kind even as he labored to put the message it carried before the reader. Thoughts on Machiavelli is not a Machiavellian book, but it respects the genius of the Florentine author, and pays him the respect of using his artfulness with grace and restraint. This critique of the founder of modern political philosophy by this prominent twentieth-century scholar is an essential text for students of both authors. Media > Book, [PU: University of Chicago Press]<