Machiavelli's Political Science
Author(s): Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr.
Source: The American Political Science Review, Vol. 75, No. 2 (Jun., 1981), pp. 293-305
Published by: American Political Science Association
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Machiavelli's Political Science
HARVEY C. MANSFIELD, JR.
Harvard University
Machiavelli is presented as the founder of modern political science, with due regard to the fact that
he never spoke of "political science. " His usage of "prudence" and "art" in The Prince is examined
to see whether, as founder, he was a teacher or a ruler of future generations. His comprehensive attack
on classical political science is outlined and developed through two essential points, the cycle and
the soul.
Modern political science presents itself today as
both narrowing and progressive. Despite certain
misgivings arising from the encounter with the
New Left, most political scientists still put their
trust in the fact-value distinction' as the method
designed to narrow their range of concern and
thereby to bring social as well as scientific progress.
To an observer, the narrowing might
seem more evident than the progress. At least it
must be admitted that scientific narrowing has
lost its evident connection to progress, since the
very meaning of the fact-value distinction is that
any good that might come of it is strictly accidental.
To understand modern political science,
therefore, one should look back to a time when
this connection was argued in comprehensive
fashion. Before investigating, one cannot exclude
the possibility that this comprehensive argument
was conceived, not in gradual stages, but ad uno
tratto ("with one stroke") in the thought of uno
solo ("one alone"). To set forth this claim on behalf
of Machiavelli, with a view to our own selfunderstanding,
is the purpose of this article.
Machiavelli's Modernity
We will not find the fact-value distinction in
Machiavelli, for he passes value judgments right
and left with unmethodical abandon. But we do
find a realism that was ancestor or parent of the
fact-value distinction in Machiavelli's famous
call, in chapter 15 of The Prince, not to depart
from what is done for what ought to be done. As
opposed to making a profession of good in all regards,
one should align one's values with facts in
the sense of deeds. So the distinction is between
deeds and professions rather than between facts
and values, and the lesson is for the good of men,
not for a methodological purity that cannot be
My thanks to Astrid Deeth, Susan Esser and Russell
Price for help with the manuscript of this article.
'That science can establish facts but not values.
proved to be for the good of anybody. For the
sake of one's preservation (which is good), even
for the common benefit of each human being, one
must learn how to be not good. With this promise
of preservation, Machiavelli connects his political
science to progress toward the human good.
What one's preservation requires, according to
Machiavelli, will become clear only gradually, but
it may be glimpsed behind the meaning today of
"modern," as for example in the phrase "modern
political science." "Modern" as we use it today is
defined against "traditional" so that what is modern
constitutes self-conscious progress beyond tradition.
But when modernity is established and
what is "modern" becomes traditional, modernity
must define itself against what had once
bravely claimed to be modern. Thus, "modern"
is always in danger of being surpassed by "more
modern"; defined as against the traditional-that
is, in relation to the traditional- "modern" seems
to have no definition. Nor does "tradition":
"traditional" is or supports the status quo, and
"modern" advances-or merely moves-beyond
it. "Modern," then, has perhaps a moving definition;
it is always ahead of itself, not to say selfdestructive.
Or one might say that modernity has
a certain direction.
In politics, more modern means further left and
more democratic, as we can see in the alleged progression
of the great modern revolutions-American,
French, Russian, Chinese-each more democratic,
supposedly, than the preceding one. What
is more democratic, it is assumed, disposes of barriers
between men, both humanly created and
otherwise, as far as possible. Such barriers are especially
the forms or formalities that define distances
between men, give society a structure, and
keep it from dissolving into an undifferentiated
mass. Thus, modern art and literature have shown
an inherent tendency away from classicism in perfection
of form toward romanticism in concern
for feeling that overrides form. Similarly, we have
learned from Tocqueville that modern politics as a
whole may be seen as the drive of extra-constitutional
democratic forces to overcome the restraints
of constitutional forms that were once
293
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294 The American Political Science Review Vol. 75
modern themselves.2 The liberalism that was to set
men free has been attacked and pushed aside by
movements let loose by those dissatisfied with liberal
formalism, who desired a more radical freedom:
for the decline in respect for forms and formalities
is accompanied by a demand for more
subjectivity and creativity.
Such, in brief, is the course of the modern
world as it races toward perfect democracy and
freedom. But this sort of perfection is indefinable;
as soon as one defines the modern, it becomes the
status quo and hence traditional, an easy target
for the next progressive. To understand modernity,
therefore, one cannot look to its end, as it
seems to have none; one must look to its beginning,
when progress was first set in motion. Especially
since modernity now seems out of our control,
and "progress" no longer seems progressive,
we need to know what was intended and hoped
for originally.
When one looks to the periods at which modern
history is said to begin, however, they do not appear
to suggest, much less to launch, the characteristic
dynamism of modernity. Humanism puts
man, rather than God, at the center of attentionwhich
does not necessarily imply progress toward
a new earthly future for men; and the Renaissance
is a rebirth, perhaps a return to the ancients. Only
Machiavelli, a single man soaked in the Renaissance
and steeped in Humanism, seems, of those
in his times, to have declared himself for progress
in terms we recognize.3
More precisely, Machiavelli is for novelty. In
The Prince, he praises the new prince over the
hereditary prince because the new prince depends
only on himself and thus gains more glory; the
highest case is the new prince in a new principality
who is also the prophet of a new religion (The
Prince 6, 24). And at the beginning of the Discourses
on Livy, Machiavelli, comparing himself
to those in his times who sought unknown seas
and lands, says he is bringing "new modes and orders"
to mankind. He appears to be the first
political philosopher not merely to admit his own
novelty (as for example Marsilius) but even to
flaunt it; and he did this not merely to establish
2Tocqueville (1969, p. 698). Consider the criticism of
liberal formalism in Karl Marx, "On the Jewish Question,"
in Marx (1975, pp. 219, 234).
3See n. 55 below and The Prince 12 (progressigrandissimi).
Two recent works emphasizing Machiavelli's republicanism
have lost sight of his progressivism. In Pocock
(1975, pp. 158-77, 218), Machiavelli's concern with
innovation is given due emphasis with regard to The
Prince, but denied with regard to the Discourses; and
see Skinner (1978, Vol. 1, pp. xiv, 45, 179; cf. Vol. 1, p.
181). See also Gerschmann (1973, p. 175).
his new modes and orders but, in accordance with
them, to give new reputation to those who seek
out new acquisitions.4 It is not that Machiavelli invented
new political tricks. He admits to having
borrowed techniques of government from the ancients
and perhaps also from Christianity, and he
was aware that before him there had always been
half-hearted or untaught Machiavellians in need
of instruction.5 Rather, he believed that political
men should be encouraged to make their own innovations
so as to increase opportunities for glory
and gain for themselves and their peoples, for
"preservation" requires both glory and gain. The
founder of a state does not legislate once in the
hope that his forms will endure; instead, the
healthy state must be made and remade, formed
and reformed, or it will become corrupt.6 Machiavelli
is far from espousing a formless or stateless
society, but he favors frequent reform and he is
definitely no respecter of formalities.
Machiavelli's realism unites with his desire for
innovation when one sees that learning how to be
not good means especially learning how to introduce
an innovation.' In the chapter of The Prince
where he calls for learning how to be not good, he
announces publicly that he departs in this "from
the orders of others." Machiavelli thought he
lived in times when men were weak and vile (at
least in Italy); he spoke scornfully of modern politics
and religion and by contrast appealed to "ancient
virtue."'8 Such expressions might appear to
put Machiavelli with the Renaissance and to demand
a return to the ancients. But Machiavelli,
we see, was very far from being reactionary. He
rejects the authority of the ancients in this chap-
4Thus, although new acquisitions are useful to princes
and peoples, they must mainly appear glorious in order
to attract glory-seekers. Machiavelli would have found
utilitarianism too staid to be useful. Compare what he
says about cose nuove in The Prince 6 with his remark
on cosepresenti in The Prince 24; and note innovate con
nuovi modi 1i ordini antiqui in The Prince 7. Marsilius
of Padua, Defensor Pacis 1.1.3; I.XIX.3.
'See especially Discourses on Livy 1.27 on knowing
how to be altogether bad or good. On Machiavelli's borrowing
from the ancients, see The Prince 3 (praise of
Romans), 6 (beg.), 19 (end); Discourses I, proemium, 2,
4, 5, 21; 11.16, 24, 33; 111.2. On his possible borrowing
from Christianity, consider The Prince 7 (on "Remirro
de Orco"); Discourses 1.52; 11.16-18.
'Discourses 1.6, 16-20; 111.1, 3, 7. Note the progression
from The Prince 4 (end) to The Prince 6 (on form
and matter) to The Prince 25 (end). But refounding
"every day" would be offensive, The Prince 8.
'The Prince 8 (end), 17, 18, 19 (end); Discourses
111.35.
'Discourses I. proemium, 12, 55; 11.2; III.1; The
Prince 3, 12, 26; Art of War, proemium.
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1981 Machiavelli's Political Science 295
ter, for they, together with the Christians, wer
the "others" who based their political science on
what should be done rather than on what is done,
who elaborated the "profession of good" in all
regards, and who therefore constructed imaginary
republics and principalities such as Plato's Republic
and St. Augustine's City of God.
In regard to political teaching, the strong ancients
are at one with the weak moderns. So in the
preface to the first book of the Discourses on
Livy, Machiavelli indicates that he will honor ancient
politics through ancient histories, not by imitating
ancient political science. Moreover, the history
he chooses is Roman, not Greek; and near
the beginning of the Discourses on Livy he reveals
a definite preference for Rome over Sparta, the
Greek city most favored by political philosophers.
While making use of Polybius and Livy, he ignores
Polybius' statement of indebtedness to
Greek political science; and his use of Livy, of
which much has recently been said, does not indicate
acceptance of Livy's interpretations of
events, to put it mildly.9 Machiavelli puts his own
interpretation on ancient virtue so that it becomes
Machiavellian virtue. He values the large and imperialistic
Roman republic above the Greek cities,
and judges its virtue by its fortune in war, although
that virtue was exercised in conquering the
Greek cities among others.'0 While bowing ironically
to the authority of the ancients-so that he
can use it against the authority of the modernsMachiavelli
in fact uses ancient examples to reproach
ancient teachings. He returns to the ancients
in order to improve on them.
Unless one dissolves Machiavelli's arguments
into phrases and reduces his design to vulgar
office-seeking, one cannot find another thinker or
statesman in his times or before who reminds us
so vividly and profoundly of the realism and dynamism
of modernity. Today, many would perhaps
agree with this judgment, if not this formulation.
But there remains a great reluctance to admit,
or even consider, that Machiavelli might be
chiefly responsible for the spirit of modernity and
thus is himself the origin of the modern world.
Modernity now seems so powerful and all-encompassing
that it appears to be unstoppable, and if
unstoppable, apparently inevitable. Few are ready
to believe that the modern world, which wishes to
move in the direction of perfect freedom for men
and to give men ever greater control over themselves
and the world, could have been founded by
the free act of a human being. Strangely, we find
9Discourses 1.5-6. Polybius VI.5.1; Livy IX.36.3;
XXXIX.8.3. Strauss (1958, Ch. 3); cf. Gilbert (1977,
pp. 115-33).
'0Discourses 1.9, 53, 59; 11.1, 10; 111.16; The Prince 3.
it more comfortable to believe in confused and
contradictory "forces of history," relishing our
fate since we cannot maintain our hopes.
Before estimating what Machiavelli's influence
might have been, one must see what he intended
and what influence he intended for himself. One
may begin from a typical view of Machiavelli's
realism, which is that he believed that morality
can be one's guide in private affairs but not in
politics. Such a view seems implied in a remark of
Thomas Hobbes', apparently directed at Machiavelli:
"Successful wickedness hath obtained the
name virtue . . . when it is for the getting of a
kingdom" (Leviathan, Ch. 15). It is supported in
Machiavelli's Discourses 1.9, where Romulus'
killing of his brother is excused because it was
necessary for him to rule alone to order a kingdom
or a republic for the common good."
Yet, returning to chapter 15 of The Prince, we
find that the title mentions "men and especially
princes," while the principal advice is addressed
to "whoever understands." Actual princes may
be imprudent; indeed, according to Machiavelli,
their sins are responsible for Italy's plight.' They
must be replaced by prudent princes, who are now
private men. But a private man must behave like a
prince because a private man, if he is prudent,
must become a prince-as Hobbes' remark suggests.
Machiavelli's own suggestion, in his punning
use of the word privato, is that a private man
should regard himself as deprived of office.'3 Perhaps
the rules of politics are not those of private
morality, but when private men are compelled to
become princes, they no more than princes can
live by professions of good. Moreover, the prudent,
private man who wants to become prince
must not only be ready to make his way by such
crimes as fratricide; he must also pave the way by
making it easier for such crimes to be accepted as
necessary. In Discourses I. 10, just after providing
an excuse for Romulus, Machiavelli shows how a
founder is affected by his reputation, in particular
how he can be hampered by an evil reputation as a
tyrant. Machiavelli may have excused Romulus,
"Cf. Discourses 1.18 (end), where Romulus' killing is
excused without reference to the common good. See
Florentine Histories 1.3, regarding Attila, who also
killed his brother in order to "be alone in the king-
dom."
'2The Prince 12; Discourses 1.21; 11.18; 111.29.
'3The Prince 2, 6, 7, 8, 14; Discourses 111.2, 5. Note
also the phrase private fortune in The Prince 6, 7, 12,
14. The "private citizen" who must seek office must
also have the princely "humor" (The Prince 9) to be
sure; but this fact does not justify the private lives of
those who share the popular humor, who as such are deluded.
See Price (1977, p. 620).
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296 The American Political Science Review Vol. 75
but others-for example, St. Augustine-have
not.'4
Thus, the prudent prince needs a whole new climate
of political and moral opinion to facilitate
his arrival and maintenance in power. This is what
Machiavelli intends to supply. The prince, or
founder-prince, "is alone" only if he alone sets
the standards by which he is judged and his reputation
is made. Only he who sets these standards is
alone above ordinary moral persons who live by
them and above princes who may share them and
who must conform to them, or appear to conform,
for the sake of reputation. The highest
prince, who is in the fullest sense prince, is the
moral or political philospher who establishes the
opinions in which lesser princes operate." If, according
to Machiavelli, public and private immorality
must be controlled by the political necessity
of acquiring and maintaining a state, then the
highest prince is the political philosopher or scientist,
Machiavelli himself-the one who brings
"new modes and orders" for the common benefit
not merely of Florentines or Italians but also of
everyone.
Prudence and the Art of War
In this prospectus for "new modes and orders"
establishing a new climate for prudent princes and
private men, however, there is an evident difficulty.
Is the end of the political scientist to pave
the way for princes (thus also improving the lot of
peoples), or, since the political scientist too is in a
sense a prince, is his end to be prince himself? In
the former case, Machiavelli's political science
would be teachable to all and his status as teacher
of all for the common benefit would be superior
to his ambition of ruling as "one alone%" He
would indeed be teacher rather than prince, for
his discoveries, like those of any scientist or
philosopher, would not carry along to present and
future beneficiaries the personal rule of their
discoverer. The scientist, as teacher, is not strictly
"one alone," and if he discovers "new modes and
orders," his glory is merely to have been the first
to see, and not now to be the first in rule, as
prince.
Yet this formal truth regarding teaching in general
seems overborne by the content of Machia'4St.
Augustine, De civitate Dei XV.5.
"One cannot create opinions altogether, since ordinary
morality remains and will remain unaffected even
by Machiavelli's instructions; see Mansfield (1979), on
Discourses 1.10. In The Prince 15, "the orders of
others" from which Machiavelli departs refer to qualities
for which men are praised and blamed. See also Discourses
I, proemium; Florentine Histories, proemium.
velli's particular teaching. When the teacher's
lesson requires rising to sole rule, it seems unreasonable
that the teacher should except himself,
and unlikely that he will. In this case, his status as
teacher would be subordinate to his ambition as
prince, and the prudence he exercises in his own
interest would control the science or art that he
claims to be in the common interest. How can one
sincerely advise "successful wickedness"?'6 If
wickedness succeeds for those advised, then why
not also for the adviser? And if the advice is
wicked, why should it help those advised? Although
Machiavelli's difficulty can be sensed by
anyone of ordinary moral experience, it is
obscured by scholars who make excuses for
Machiavelli, conceal the wickedness of his advice
and thus blindly rob him of the glory he claimed
for having begun the scholarly practice of making
such excuses. To excuse Machiavelli is to dismiss
not only every popular, but also every interesting,
sense of the word "Machiavellian."
In the dedicatory letter to The Prince, which
was written to be understood "in a very brief
time" by an actual prince, this difficulty of
Machiavelli's political science appears in the relation
between art and prudence, and the word "science"
does not occur. Indeed, for some reason
Machiavelli does not speak at all of "political science."
"Science" is discussed in the Discourses
(111.39), which were addressed to potential princes
with more time on their hands. In this summary
treatment, we shall mainly consider The Prince.
Machiavelli's dedicatory letter offers to Lorenzo
his "knowledge of the actions of great men,"
which is the gift of everything he knows. From
this he dares to "discuss and give rules for the
government of princes" and says he possesses
knowledge of the nature of princes. What he
knows of the government of princes seems to be
practical, and what he knows of the nature of
princes, theoretical. These two kinds of knowledge
appear to combine in the third chapter,
where "the Romans" are cited as the example for
wise princes of overcoming the particular difficulties
of acquiring and maintaining a new principality.
The Romans knew the remedies for these
difficulties because they knew them "at a distance"
(discosto) or saw ahead.'7 Such knowledge
is likened to that of physicians taking timely measures
to cure consumption, but is then limited to
"a prudent one," as opposed to "the wise men of
our times," and said to be "given" only to that
'6Or, how can one be a "teacher of evil"? Strauss
(1958, p. 9). Lefort (1972, pp. 260-62) has read past the
first sentence in Strauss' book and has taken note of the
"if" in that sentence.
'7See also Florentine Histories VII.5.
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1981 Machiavelli's Political Science 297
one. The same foresight is recommended in the
sixth chapter to "a prudent man"; he should imitate
the great men who have not imitated anybody
and have made altogether new principalities. He
should behave like "prudent archers" who shoot
at a mark above the target in order to hit the target.
Where one would expect "skillful archers"
one finds "prudent archers," as if prudence,
understood as discounting ahead of time, were assimilated
to art and art thereby given command
over the future.'8 He who follows this procedure is
said first to have "some odor" of the great men
he imitates, and then, because archers know the
virtue of their bows, and use the aid of the high
mark, they are allowed to "succeed in their design."
In a turn typical of Machiavelli's writing,
the (singular) prudent man whose prudence is
"given" to him becomes the (plural) prudent archers
whose learned prudence supplies the lack of
highest virtue. We are made aware of, but not directed
to, the difference between the prudence of
imitating great men and prudence which is similar
to possessing an art. When imitating great men,
one follows their beaten track and thus does not
truly imitate their innovation; however, each
archer, as such, is as "prudent" as any.
Machiavelli alludes to this difference at the end
of the ninth chapter when he remarks that "a wise
prince" must think of a "mode" through which
his citizens will always have need of him and thus
will always be faithful to him. Can a wise prince
do this with political science? At the end of the
tenth chapter, Machiavelli says he has solved the
problem of keeping citizens loyal, at least in part,
for "a prudent prince." In the first part of The
Prince (Chs. 1-11), on the kinds of principalities
and how to acquire them, he joins theory and
practice or wisdom and prudence, while leaving
unclear whether they must be given as prudence or
may be learned as an art.
The second part of The Prince (Chs. 12-14), on
the necessity of using "one's own arms," heightens
the difficulty. Machiavelli condemns the use
of mercenary arms but praises a certain mercenary
captain in the service of the Florentines, Paulo
Vitelli, as uomo prudentissimo for having risen
from private fortune to very great reputation. If
he had taken Pisa for the Florentines, Machiavelli
remarks, the Florentines either would have had no
recourse had he left them or would have had to
obey him. Machiavelli does not remark that in
fact this "very prudent man" did not take Pisa
and was thereupon killed by the Florentines. They
spied the danger to them in Vitelli's prudence,
since "mercenary arms" to them were "his own
arms" to him. But they also did not know how to
'Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1139b7-8, 1140aI8.
take advantage of his prudence, such as it was. In
chapter 13 Machiavelli deplores "the lack of prudence
in men" by contrast to the wisdom which is
given to the few, and he criticizes the Romans
whose prudence he had praised in chapter 3.
Among the few wise who order their own arms, he
names Philip of Macedon, whom he had cited in
the preceding chapter as a mercenary captain who
took away the liberty of his employers. Machiavelli
says he gives himself over entirely to Philip's
(and to others') orders. Does Machiavelli then admit
that the few wise, perhaps including himself,
hire out their wisdom and rob their employers in
the manner of mercenary captains?
Machiavelli answers this question provisionally
in the fourteenth chapter of The Prince. Although
the chapter heading does not mention the art of
war, Machiavelli suddenly announces that the art
of war should "therefore" be a prince's only object
and only thought." Whence the "therefore"?
If the dubious mercenary captain named at the
end of chapter 13, to whose orders Machiavelli
gives himself over entirely, can be presented as
teaching an art, then his wisdom can be made to
appear as benefaction. Such is the virtue of this
art that it not only maintains those born princes
but also often causes men to rise from private fortune
to the rank of prince. When princes have
thought more of delicacies (delicatezze) than of
arms, they have lost their state. Using a weighty
phrase, Machiavelli says that the "first cause" of
losing one's state is to neglect the art of war, and
that the cause of gaining it is to be "professed" in
the art.20
This is illustrated by Francesco Sforza, who
through being armed became Duke of Milan, and
by his sons, who through avoiding arms became
private men.2' The example of the Sforzas does
not in truth illustrate the principle because it fails
to mention the art of war; besides, Francesco,
however proficient in that art, did not "profess"
it in the sense of teaching it. Nonetheless, as we
have seen, a mercenary captain who fights on all
sides for hire and gains his own personal "state"
'Quella e so/a arte che si espetta a chi comanda: the
article before sola is missing perhaps because Machiavelli
is at a loss between the definite and the indefinite.
Russo's suggestion, assigning so/a to chi comanda, does
not make sense; Machiavelli (1963, p. 125n.).
"'Machiavelli claims to be "professed" in the art of
war in Art of War, proemium. See also Discourses
111.13. He does not claim to be a philosopher (Discourses
1.56) and characteristically uses weighty philosophical
phrases only in political contexts.
"Elsewhere Sforza is scolded by Machiavelli for having
built a fortress which caused his heirs to lose their
state; The Prince 20; Discourses 11.24.
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298 The American Political Science Review Vol. 75
illustrates our problem of art and prudence. Is his
art so powerful as to be the first cause of his rise
or does he also need his prudence to attune his art
to circumstances? In this statement, the art of war
has swallowed up prudence. Machiavelli goes on
to say that no proportion exists between one who
is armed and one unarmed, and that it is not reasonable
for the armed to obey willingly whoever is
unarmed. Thus, Machiavelli concludes, a prince
who understands nothing of militia, among all his
other misfortunes, is not trusted by his soldiers.
He seems clearly to deny here the fundamental
principle of classical natural right, the rule of the
wise: it is not reasonable for someone who is unwise
but armed to obey one who is wise but unarmed.
Yet if the art of war is understood in its
full extent as the only object and thought of a
prince, Machiavelli in truth affirms the classical
principle, while improving on it. For to understand
"militia" or to possess the art of war is sufficient
to make one armed, and to be armed is sufficient
to make oneself obeyed, at least by one's
soldiers and perhaps also by one's subjects.22 Contrary
to the classical writers, Machiavelli argues
that knowing leads to commanding, and so the art
of war in the extended sense includes politics. Nowhere
else does Machiavelli give the art of war
such amplitude.23
Moreover, he says next that a prince (or one)
must never lift his thought from the exercise of
war, and in peace more than in war. Never?24
Does this mean that thought (or at least a prince's
thinking) should never be detached from advantage
in war? Does "effectual truth" mean effectual
in war, whether foreign or domestic, and is
this the only truth one should seek? Machiavelli's
elaboration of this startling "never" seems to take
away from its naked force, but only at first. He
says that the exercise of war in peace is done in
two modes, with works (opere) and mind (mente).
But apart from keeping one's own arms in order,
he says that a prince should always be on the chase
so that he can accustom his body to hardships and
learn the nature of sites. Machiavelli then discusses
this topographical knowledge, of which
one should take "the greatest care." The
22The Prince 6 (on armed prophets); 19 (on Severus);
Discourses, Dedicatory Letter (on the writers' praise of
Hiero); 1.21; 111.13, 38.
13Not in the Art of War, proemium, I (beg.), where
Machiavelli says that the art of war is necessary to defend
the other arts and is useful for civil life; not in his
exchange with the French cardinal in The Prince 3, in
which understanding war is distinct from understanding
the state. See also the "arts of peace" in Discourses
1.11.
24Cf. milder statements in Discourses 1.21 and 111.31.
"works" of exercising war in peace seem hardly
distinct from "mind."
Knowledge of sites is useful because it enables
one to understand what is required for selfdefense
and because the topographical features in
one region have a "certain similitude" to those in
other regions. Knowledge of one site thus enables
one to comprehend any other site. Such knowledge,
the "first part" of a captain, is accompanied
by reasoning, as Machiavelli makes clear
by the example of Philopoemen, a prince who
used to ride in the country with his friends and
pose hypothetical questions to them concerning
all the chances (casi) an army might encounter.
With these "continuous cogitations," no accident
could ever arise for which Philopoemen did not
have the remedy: again, a sweeping claim of efficacy
for the art of war.2
This "first part" of a captain seems equivalent
to the "firm science" Machiavelli discusses in Discourses
111.39, also on the knowledge of sites,
where he also praises hunting.26 He says that
Xenophon (in his work that Machiavelli mistitles
"Life of Cyrus") makes it clear that hunting is
''an image of a war"; and Machiavelli adds that
for great men this exercise is honorable and necessary.
It appears that particular knowledge of one
country can be generalized and the familiar made
applicable to the new by the use of images representing
the similitudes mentioned in chapter 14 of
The Prince. By contrast to that chapter, Discourses
111.39 speaks of both images and sciences
so as to suggest that images (in addition to similitudes)
are necessary to science (as beyond mere
art). It was "firm science" that on one occasion
enabled a Roman tribune to save the Roman army,
despite the bafflement of the consul in
charge, by spying a summit above the enemy on
which both he and that army could take refuge.
An image, then, might be a similitude visible only
to one person or to a few, for sometimes it takes a
rare brain to see an invisible similitude in a visible
one; and the use of images would make possible
the "perfect possession" of a science and therewith
the rapid comprehension of new things. Such
a science might be teachable only in part to the
soldiers of an army, that part being the art of war;
but the art of war would imply a complete understanding
and might therefore be said to encompass
that understanding in a work addressed to ac-
25Livy merely says (XXXV.28.7) that Philopoemen
did this so that "no consideration would be new to him
in such a matter." Machiavelli has also suppressed Plutarch's
remark that Philopoemen loved military affairs
more than necessary; Plutarch, Philopoemen 4.6.
26For a more complete interpretation, see Mansfield
(1979, pp. 421-24).
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1981 Machiavelli's Political Science 299
tual princes in which Machiavelli does not advertise
himself as the inventor of new modes and orders."7
Even in Discourses 111.39 Machiavelli
speaks modestly of "general and particular
knowledge" as knowledge of sites, and is far from
claiming the glory of founding a new science in
the comprehensive sense, as did Bacon and
Descartes.
Machiavelli's "firm science," although making
use of images, does not incur his own condemnation
of the many (in The Prince 15) who have
imagined republics and principalities "that have
never been seen or known to exist in truth."
Those imaginary states are based on a "profession
of good," whereas Machiavelli's imagination begins
from "what is done." In Discourses 111.39 he
reports Xenophon's use of hunting as an image of
war, and by "hunting" Machiavelli indicates he
means catching one's prey. One may suppose he
was aware of the difference (and the similarity)
between hunting as catching and hunting as dialectic
in Plato's Laws.28 If hunting is for catching,
and hunting is an image of war, we can infer-because
politics centers on acquisition-that in The
Prince and the Discourses Machiavelli uses war as
an image of politics. More attention might be
given to the use of imagination in Machiavelli's
behavioral political science.
Returning to chapter 14 of The Prince, we see
that Machiavelli recommends for the second part
of the art of war, the exercise of the mind, that the
prince read histories in which the actions of excellent
men are considered.29 He must above all do as
some excellent man has done in the past who has
taken someone before him to imitate who had
been praised and glorified, as it is said Alexander
the Great imitated Achilles; Caesar, Alexander;
Scipio, Cyrus. Thus, contrary to the impression
given at the beginning of the sixth chapter, even
excellent men may imitate others. Those they imitate
are found in "histories," and as in Discourses
111.39 Machiavelli singles out the "life of Cyrus
written by Xenophon" and asserts that in his
chastity, affability, humanity and liberality,
Scipio conformed to what had been written about
Cyrus by Xenophon. Those whom excellent men
imitate, then, are men of whom authors such as
Homer and especially Xenophon, the Socratic
17In Discourses 111.39, Decius, the Roman tribune,
puts on a cloak so that the enemy would not notice the
leader.
28Plato, Laws 823b; Xenophon makes a characteristically
less obtrusive reference to "love of hunting"
(philotheria), which Cyrus deprecates, Cyropaideia
11.4.26.
2Histories, not mirrors of princes; cf. Discourses
111.5.
philosopher, have written. From whatever source
princes learn the art of war, they imitate the virtues
or qualities taught by authors, and, it is implied,
their art is incomplete without these qualities.
As with founders as Machiavelli describes
them in Discourses 1.9-10, princes possessing the
art of war are not self-sufficient but dependent on
the moral opinion of society. Accordingly,
Machiavelli closes the chapter with a less promising
remark about fortune; with this imitation a
wise prince can resist fortune's adversities, not
have a remedy for any accident.
With this modulation we are led to the fifteenth
chapter of The Prince, entitled "On those things
for which men and especially princes are praised
or blamed." Here begins the second half of The
Prince, in which the difficulties caused by the
moral qualities are considered.30 For apparently
the art of war cannot teach one to surmount the
moral expectations of one's subjects and friends
which stand in the way of one's necessary acquisitions.
Machiavelli's exaggeration of the art of war
does put one in the right frame of mind; for in
representing prudence as art, in contradiction to
Aristotle, he makes prudence morally neutral
(Nicomachean Ethics 1140b 25; 1144a 7-9, 23-37).
We are thus prepared to be told that one must be
prudent to know how to avoid the infamy of those
vices that take away one's state (Ch. 15), for
example, "the name of stingy" (Ch. 16), that a
new prince must temper his cruelties with prudence
and humanity (Ch. 17), and that a prudent
lord should not keep faith when keeping it works
against him (Ch. 18). Machiavelli offers a definition
of prudence in chapter 21 that sums up its
morally neutral use of the moral qualities: "Prudence
consists in knowing how to recognize the
qualities of inconveniences and in picking the less
bad as good."
After chapter 14, meanwhile, the status of art is
diminished as the arts are reduced to partial human
activities such as the art of gaining reputation
(Ch. 19) or subordinated to the virtues (Ch. 21) or
contrasted with violence (Ch. 25). Remarkably,
the art of war, which was said to be the sole object
and thought of a prince in chapter 14 because it
seemed to comprehend all human activities, is not
even mentioned after that chapter. Instead, soldiers
are said to love a prince of "military spirit"
(Ch. 19), Caracalla and Philip of Macedon are
praised as "military men" (Chs. 19, 24) and
Lorenzo is exhorted to revive "military virtue" in
Italy with a saying of Petrarch's predicting that
virtue, not art, will take up arms there (Ch. 26).
30Resta ora, The Prince 15 begins; on the four parts of
The Prince, see Strauss (1958, pp. 56-60).
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300 The American Political Science Review Vol. 75
As art is reduced to activities that can be ordered
but are still subject to chance (Aristotle,
Nicomachean Ethics 1140a 12-20), prudence is enlarged
to include the governing of fortune. At the
end of chapter 23, Machiavelli says that a prince
who is not wise himself cannot be well advised
unless by chance he gives himself over3' to "one
alone" (uno solo) to govern him in everything,
who would be uomo prudentissimo. This second
occurrence of prudentissimo in The Prince, used
to describe the adviser of a prince who indeed
governs him in everything, reminds us of the
"very prudent" Paulo Vitelli (Ch. 12) who would
have had the Florentines in a dilemma if he had
taken Pisa. Machiavelli will show how to solve the
problem of the adviser who governs the advised,
thus benefiting the advised and, not incidentally,
saving himself from the fate of Vitelli (cf. Discourses
1.21, 11.33). As adviser of princes (or republics),
Machiavelli both is and is not a prince
himself. He cannot acquire a new principality for
himself, but in teaching princes he gains some of
their glory, leaving for them the obvious glory enjoyed
by successful politicians and taking for himself
the glory of having facilitated their glory, a
glory evident only to the discerning. Thus, in the
next chapter" Machiavelli speaks of the double
glory of "having given a beginning to a new principality"
(avere dato principio a uno principato
nuovo), a phrase that both falls short of and exceeds
"acquiring a new principality." It exceeds
acquiring a new principality because this prince
does not merely imitate the great men whose
beaten tracks a prudent man was previously required
to follow (Ch. 6). His advice gives a beginning
to every principality by supplying the moral
prerequisites and their theoretical foundation.33
The last part of The Prince (Chs. 24-26) concerns
the problem of sustaining the prince's glory
despite "the brevity of life" (Ch. 25). Ordinary
princes may not receive the glory they deserve or
may receive more glory than they deserve, according
to how ill or how well their habits and nature
are suited to their times. But the prince who gave
ordinary princes their beginning can afford to
wait patiently while virtue and fortune are sorted
out since the opportunities for his virtue, and
hence his glory, are not bound by the brevity of
31Machiavelli "gave himself over" to the orders of
others (The Prince 13, end), took that back (15), and
now looks for a prince who will give himself over to his
adviser (23).
32The Prince 24 begins: "The things written above,
observed prudently... ." On the glory of advising, see
Discourses III.35.
33Cf. the double glory in Discourses III. 13 and Art of
War VII (in Machiavelli, 1961, p. 515).
his life.34 He alone has sure defenses against
stormy times, as only for him do such defenses depend
on himself and his virtue (Ch. 24). Machiavelli's
art has disappeared into his virtue, which is
his alone. With his virtue he teaches the art of war
or something like it to ordinary princes, but their
opportunities for using his teaching depend on
their fortune after all. Machiavelli will not allow
"these princes of ours" to accuse fortune rather
than admit their indolence; he demands, in the
notorious sentence at the end of chapter 25, that
they proceed impetuously to manhandle lady fortune.
Imitating the furious Pope Julius II, they
should go beyond where "all human prudence"
would have led them. This now limited and subdued
prudence serves to distinguish virtue from
caution for the generality of Machiavelli's readers
as they rush from the necessities he describes
toward the prizes he holds out for them. But only
he is truly impetuous. Only he is not bound by the
moral qualities because only he has learned how
to be good and not good. His impetuosity is both
impetuous and respectful: impetuous in theory by
comparison to other writers, and respectful in
practice to Lorenzo and other princes, both actual
and potential, to whom he allows their subordinate
glories. His position as adviser enables him to
share in the natures of all whom he advises as he
uses the diverse qualities of those who follow his
advice. So by the use of the moral qualities of
others, he is not bound by his times as are others,
hence not bound by his nature.35 Since he is not
bound by his nature and knows how to be flexible
(both facile and duro) in all times,36 his fortune is
assured. Others may absorb his teaching and a
few may perhaps equal or surpass him, but if his
teaching is true they follow his fortune. They follow
the fortune of the man who first showed men
how to become responsible for their fortune. His
virtue depends on himself alone, his glory is un-
340n brevity of life, see also The Prince 7, 11. And see
Discourses 111.8, 34, 35.
35"Nature" occurs 26 times in The Prince proper. The
first occurrence is "the nature of government" (4); the
ninth is "all other things in nature" (6); the eleventh is a
"natural defect of spirit" (9); the thirteenth is "the
nature of sites" (14); the fourteenth is "the nature of
rivers and marshes" (14; cf. 25, beg.); the seventeenth is
that a prince needs to know how to use "the one and the
other nature" (18); and the nineteenth is "by nature or
by art" (19). "Prudence" occurs 28 times and "art" 9
times. The sixth occurrence of "art" is with the nineteenth
of "nature," the only association of "nature"
and "art."
36See especially The Prince 24; facile and duro are the
ninth pair in the list of eleven moral qualities in The
Prince 15, distinct from the others as the qualities of
qualities. See also Discourses I.41.
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1981 Machiavelli's Political Science 301
repeatable and he is uno solo, not in contemplative
isolation but governing for the common benefit
of each. His government is established ad uno
tratto in his books, but also over time as his influence
or fortune advances.
Machiavelli could be said to have "ornamented
and confirmed" his new principality "with good
laws, good arms, good friends and good examples"
(Ch. 24) to be found in his books, but he did
not write the handbook of an art of politics with
rules for all occasions. Nor did he, like Thomas
Hobbes, author a new political science or "civil
philosophy" on the basis of a new method, and
claim credit for it.37 Even if Machiavelli had
thought it possible for a political art to do the
work of prudence, and even if the new scientific
method had been available to him as it was to
Hobbes, he would have had reason to decline the
honor of founding a new political art or science.
Such a founding would have given him too much
glory because it would have subtracted from the
glory of later princes-and not enough glory, because
later princes applying an impersonal science
would not have been subjects of his (see Discourses
111.13, end).
The Cycle and the Soul
Machiavelli presents his new political science in
opposition to classical political science. But despite
his statement in chapter 15 of The Prince
against the imaginary republics and principalities
essential to classical political science, his opposition
becomes clear only gradually. As can be seen
from the preface to the first book of the Discourses,
he found it convenient to condemn the
weakness of his own age by contrast to the ancients,
for in doing so he could appeal to opinion
in his age favorable to the ancients. My account of
his critique of classical political science, passing
over the subtlety of his rhetoric, will consider two
points of Machiavelli's attack, the cycle and the
soul.
In the preface just mentioned, Machiavelli says
that the ancients have been imitated in many
things, though not in politics. Yet soon after, in
Discourses 1.2, he makes a significant departure
from classical political science in regard to the cycle.
Classical political science (here assembled
from diverse sources) had supposed that regimes
tend to change in a regular way-from good to
less good to bad to worst; or alternating from
good to bad and bad to good. These regular
changes make a circle or cycle, coming back to
their beginning and beginning again, with the con-
37Hobbes (1839-45, I.viii-ix; VII.170-71). Cf. Sternberger
(1974, pp. 40-41).
sequence that the progress in human affairs that
we moderns expect does not occur and should not
be expected. Good times are followed by bad, and
bad by good; so, as Isocrates once remarked, a
reasonable man might wonder whether it is better
to be born in good times that will worsen or bad
times that will improve.38 Civilization may progress
as morality, arts and sciences advance; but
civilizations are subject to natural catastrophes
which return them to their barbarous beginnings,
from which they must recommence. The cycle of
regimes assumes that the city is self-sufficient;
that it becomes better or worse through the actions
of its own ruling class, which deserves praise
or blame for them; that domestic policy is therefore
primary. The cycle of civilizations, however,
reminds men of the power of extra-human forces
and of the fragility of human constructions. But
this reminder of the limits to human choice actually
promotes human choice because it teaches men
that in the end all merely human force will be
overborne, hence that they need not judge their
actions merely by their consequences nor their
governments by their durability. Moderationnot
fearful, but responsible moderation-is the
moral lesson of the classical teaching on the cycle.
Machiavelli did not approve of this lesson. In
Discourses 1.2 he almost copies an account of the
cycle from Polybius, without naming him as
source. The closeness of his copying enables one
to see the significant differences, which center on
his replacement of "nature" in Polybius by
"chance" or "necessity" to explain the origin of
governments and of morality.39 After concluding
this account, Machiavelli abruptly adds that almost
no republic could survive these ups and
downs without becoming subject to a neighboring
state better ordered than itself. Speaking for himself
("I say"), he says that all these regimes are
pestiferous, the good ones because of their "brevity
of life" and the bad ones because of their
malignity. Then, having introduced foreign policy
as the decisive consideration and thus having denied
the assumptions of the classical account of
the cycle, he loses interest in the cycle of regimes
and never discusses or even refers to it again.
Machiavelli offers, still in Discourses 1.2, two
kinds of legislated beginnings for cities: uno solo
may make all the laws ad uno tratto, as Lycurgus
in Sparta; or, as in Rome, the city may lack perfect
order but may have made a good beginning
38Plato, Laws 676b-c; Republic 540e-541a; Statesman
271e-274e; Aristotle, Physics 223b 24-31; Politics 1316a
15-22; On Philosophy 8; Polybius, VI.9.10; Isocrates,
Areopagiticus 3-5.
39Gennaro Sasso (1967, Chs. 4, 5; 1958, pp. 306-15).
Strauss (1958, p. 222); Guillemain (1977, pp. 266-67).
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302 The American Political Science Review Vol. 75
apt to become better, and through the occurrence
of accidents, may be capable of becoming perfect.
At first the beginning which is legislated all at
once-the mixed regime of classical political science-seems
superior, but Machiavelli shows in
Discourses 1.3-8 that the way of perfection
through accidents is far better. Although subject
to party discord and "tumults" (in which men
shout at each other instead of adjudicating their
claims),40 Rome's way was more flexible in meeting
"accidents," especially the accident that if someone
wishes to conquer you, you will have to
conquer him first. Since every state must meet this
accident, it should have a regime that enables it to
keep what it has got, like Rome's. Rome could expand
successfully, converting foreigners into
Romans, while Sparta could not. Rome's regime
of accidental perfection, with its emergency solutions
and individual initiatives, was superior to
Sparta's regime of planned perfection. One
should not infer from this that human planning is
incompetent in politics, however. We may suspect
that Machiavelli, who had to overcome the prejudice
against tumultuous republics (Discourses
1.4), arranged the accidents of the Roman republic
as supplied by Livy to suit his plan of perfection.
His plan, we have suggested, is legislated all
at once in his books but allows for accidents, especially
of foreign policy, as they arise over time.
It thus combines the two kinds of legislated beginnings
set forth in Discourses 1.2.
One particular difficulty in the accidental perfection
of Rome calls for Machiavelli's intervention.
It appears in Discourses 1.7, where he is considering
why party government worked successfully
in Rome and brought disaster in Florence. In
Florence certain party politicians were able, when
pressed, to appeal to "foreign forces," "outside
forces," or "private forces." Machiavelli refers
to Francesco Valori, a prince of the city as it were,
a man who was judged to have wished "with his
audacity and spiritedness lanimositdj to rise above
Itrascenderel civil life," and who could be resisted
only with a "sect" contrary to his. Valori's
"sect" was the party of Savonarola, who is not
mentioned. Soon after, in Discourses I. 1 1, he refers
to Savonarola himself, and says that Savonarola
was able to persuade the people of Florence,
which did not think itself ignorant or rude, that he
spoke with God. Clearly one who can persuade
others that he speaks with God has a private advantage
over other party politicians. He appeals
to both a foreign (or outside) and a private source
of power.
In the next chapter Machiavelli informs his
readers that the Roman Church keeps Italy dis-
4"Aristotle, Politics 1280a 9-17.
united, chiefly because the Church is not strong
enough to seize Italy but strong enough to prevent
anyone- else from doing so. It prevents others
from conquering-or should one say unifying?
Italy by appealing to outside powers such as the
king of France to intervene on its behalf. But why
can it do this? Because the pope can persuade not
necessarily the king of France but the French people
that he speaks with God. Thus Machiavelli
speaks in this chapter of "Christian states and republics"
and of the "Christian republic." Christian
republics are divided from each other because
of what unites them-a religion that gives opportunity,
or makes it necessary, for priests to interfere
in politics.
Therefore, a wider view is necessary. One must
look not merely to the regime but also to the religion
that controls the part of the world where
the regime is, to the sect. "Sect" is an important
Machiavellian term apparently borrowed from
Marsilius; and Machiavelli follows Marsilius' impudent
application of it to Christianity, for example
in the strange phrase "Catholic sect.'"41
Machiavelli takes up the cycle of sects in Discourses
11.5, where he considers what cause is responsible
for their rise and fall-men, heaven or
nature. He raises the possibility that men, or even
a single man, could control not the cycle of regimes
but the cycle of sects. For sect is a more
comprehensive phenomenon than regime; it includes
language and customs, the moral climate of
government, as well as politics. Even names and
dates are determined by sects. In the Florentine
Histories (1.5), Machiavelli refers to the fact that
after Christianity was established, people stopped
naming their sons Caesar and Pompey and began
calling them Peter, John and Matthew. And he
takes note of the manner in which we date events
by ensuring that all the dates given in the Discourses-26
of them-occur in his own lifetime.
From the viewpoint of sects, one must consider
foreign or outside forces in the widest sense of
things foreign to or outside of man. One becomes
aware that Machiavelli is not an unreflective humanist
who puts human concerns first but a
philosopher reflecting on God and nature who
puts human necessities first. He does not behold
God and nature with wonder, and discourse on
what he understands of them. Rather, he regards
them with fear, and sees this fear exemplified in
fearful, wholesale changes of sect;42 and so he discourses
on the remedies he finds for the fears men
must have of their beginnings. Then, from the
4Florentine Histories 1.5; V.1; Marsilius of Padua,
DefensorPacis I.X.3, 7; IL.V111.4; XVI.7; XX.1; Garin
(1970, p. 61); Mansfield (1972, pp. 209-66).
42Discourses 111.1; Florentine Histories 1.5, VLI.1.
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1981 Machiavelli's Political Science 303
viewpoint of sects, one could say that in modern
times, that is, Machiavelli's times, the cycle is
stalled. The proximate cause of the stall is Christianity,
which does not esteem the honor of the
world and keeps it weak (Discourses 11.2). But the
ultimate cause is in the principles of classical
political science, perhaps especially in the classical
notion of soul. In reading through The Prince and
the Discourses, the only works of Machiavelli's in
which he says he puts everything he knows, one
does not find the word "soul" (anima).43 What
does this fact mean?
As conceived by Plato and Aristotle, the soul
was intended to give protection against "outside
forces" in the extended sense. Having soul enables
men to be different from their environment, to
have dignity above the rest of nature and to be
free of (or within) the forces of nature and gods
outside them. In the classical definition of soul
there were two essentials: the soul as beginning of
motion and the soul as intellect. Having soul, men
can begin an action on their own, not determined
from outside; and because men have soul, this action
can be intelligent. The problem of this definition
was in connecting the two essentials. Whatever
action one begins seems to be his own, and
yet if the action is to be intelligent, one must be
capable of detachment from one's own to achieve
an impartial outlook that does not merely endorse
one's prejudices. Yet while the two essentials are
difficult to connect, it is also necessary to connect
them. One's actions are not his own if they are determined
by fancy or chance, that is, stupidly or
by blindly following the authority of another."
According to Machiavelli, and for a reason to
be explained, there is terrible danger to mankind
in the attempt to detach oneself from what is
one's own. He therefore denied the possibility of
detachment in the human soul. What was left in
the classical definition was the soul as beginning
of motion; but the soul cannot begin motion unless
it can act intelligently. Other animals have instincts
instead of intelligence and are incapable of
truly voluntary or deliberate action. So, in denying
the possibility of detached intelligence,
Machiavelli had to pay the price of denying that
men are capable of voluntary action.45 But instead
of having instincts, men are determined by necessity,
or by the necessity that they have the pru"3Strauss
(1958, pp. 200, 333n.59). Anima occurs occasionally
in Machiavelli's other works.
"Plato, Laws 896a-e; Phaedrus 245c-d, 247d;
Timaeus 89a; Republic 353d; Phaedo 105c; Aristotle,
De Anima 404b 28-30, 432 a 15-18; Nicomachean Ethics
1139a 5-12.
45Men must make use of the beast, or beasts, in man;
The Prince 18.
dence to recognize and foresee. Necessity well understood,
not any fool's opinion, replaces deliberate
choice- in the soul as that which begins voluntary
actions. Men may choose, but the only prudent
choice is anticipation of necessity.46 The human
desire for glory, which seems to be opposed
to necessity because it seems to seek what is in excess
of necessary, is in truth comprised in necessity.47
As we have seen, glory is redeemed from incaution
by Machiavelli's plan for the common
benefit of mankind, and at the same time it is required
for the virtuous promotion of one's own.
It is notorious that Machiavelli once said in a
letter that he loved his native country more than
his own soul.48 But which was his native country,
Florence or Italy? Should he promote Florentine
independence or Italian unity; and if one should
get in the way of the other, which should he prefer?
Machiavelli does not speak only to Florentines
or to Italians but to all men. We may not be
Florentines or Italians but we can nonetheless be
Machiavellians. Machiavelli shows his solicitude
for foreigners by giving them advice in both The
Prince (3) and the Discourses (1.23) on how to invade
Italy. Much as he loved Florence and Italy,
he is not fundamentally a city or national patriot.
He is a patriot on behalf of humanity, seeking to
protect men against outside forces, consequently
a patriot of the home of human beings, the earth.
In Discourses 111.2 Machiavelli praises a trick
played by Junius Brutus, the father of Roman liberty.
According to the oracle of Apollo (as reported
by Livy), the first among a group of young
men, including Brutus, who kissed his mother,
would come to the "highest power in Rome."
Brutus decided that his mother was the earth, and
pretended to fall in order to kiss the earth.
Machiavelli urges us to believe not only that
Brutus was ambitious for himself but also that he
wished to crush the kings and liberate his native
"The Prince 3, 6, 9, 25; Discourses 1. 1, 30, 32, 33, 52;
111.5, 6.
47.Thus uno prudente e virtuoso has the task of introducing
form into the matter which will bring honor to
him and good to the universality of men (The Prince
26); such a one is perhaps not prudentissitno to show so
much of his virtue. This is the second of three instances
of "form" and "matter" together in The Prince, where
"form" appears 3 times and "matter" 13 times. See
also Discourses 1. 1, 36, 37, 43, 60; 111.12.
48Letter of April 16, 1527 to Vettori. See Discursus
florentinaruin rerum post mortem iunioris Laurentii
Medices, in Machiavelli (1961, p. 275), and cf. Plato,
Laws 731c. In his comments on Machiavelli's famous
statement, Berlin (1980) makes it uncertain whether
Machiavelli "revealed his basic moral beliefs" (p. 54) or
left open the possibility of choosing to save one's soul
(pp. 50, 64).
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304 The American Political Science Review Vol. 75
country. Summing up the point in its highest case,
Machiavelli says of a "man who is notable for his
quality" that he cannot live quietly and untroubled
out of politics. However insistently he
forswears honor and profit, his excuses will be
heard but not accepted. The attitude of philosophic
detachment is impossible even for one who
does not feel the attraction of honor and profit.
You cannot stand so far from princes as not to
arouse their suspicion, and if you attempt it, you
will nonetheless be involved in their fall. This
"middle way" of classical political science between
partisanship and unconcern cannot be sustained
because the extreme of unconcern is impossible.
Even Plato and Aristotle can be described
(though to a pope) as no less ambitious for glory
than are princes.4"
Necessity is always one's own necessity; that is
why necessity overpowers any human capacity of
detachment. What is necessary for me is especially
what is necessary for me against you. Machiavelli
says: "It is enough to ask someone for his weapon
without saying, I wish to kill you with it; then
after you have the weapon in your hand, you can
satisfy your appetite" (Discourses I. 44). Since
necessity is one's own as opposed to the necessity
of others, one's designs prompted by necessity
must be disguised. Like Brutus, the prudent man
must use deceit. The most general mode of deception
practiced by humans is by use of authority.50
You say that some authority, for example the
oracle of Apollo, supports or commands you,
when in truth necessity requires it. When men use
an authority, they put their own opinions in someone
else's mouth-in the mouths of God or of
their ancestors, or, like poets, in the mouths of
their characters. Under necessity reason is translated
into authority. Authority is reason in disguise,
or better to say, authority is the effectual
truth of detachment. Those who live a life of the
mind, detached from politics, in effect elevate
some authority in politics. This authority is not
truly detached; it only pretends to be. It is their
own necessity in disguise.
The greatest example of detachment become
authority is the Christian God, which for Machia-
49"And this glory lof reforming republics and kingdoms]
has been so esteemed by men who have not attended
to anything other than glory 'that, when they
have been unable to make a republic in deed, they have
made it in writing, like Aristotle, Plato and many
others. They wished to show the world that if they were
unable to found a civil association like Solon and Lycurgus,
they did not fail because of their ignorance but
because of their impotence. . ." (Machiavelli, Discursus,
1961, pp. 275-76). See also Manent (1977, p. 21).
50The Prince 7; Discourses 1.7, 9, 34, 35, 53; 11. 12, 18;
111.3, 5, 10, 30, 35, 38, 48.
velli, I will suggest, was the effectual truth of the
classical notion of soul. The soul was intended to
preserve human freedom and dignity, but the detachment
of soul could be preserved only if one
supposed that the soul is divine-that intelligence
or soul is God, as Aristotle said. To prevent the
divinity of soul from endangering human freedom,
Aristotle may have conceived God as impersonal,
but this reservation was unavailing. Any
idea elevated above human beings is bound to be
personified by them and made responsible for
their good,51 and the God of intelligence will be
humanized and made providential. Aristotle's
God was transformed into the personal Christian
God that was used by priests to interfere with
princes and tyrannize over peoples. The effectual
truth of Aristotelianism was Christianity or that
combination of Aristotle and Christianity which
Thomas Hobbes was to call Aristotelity. Aristotle
should have known that his detached intelligence
in the soul would become a God that would be an
outside force threatening the liberty of men.
Acting under necessity, then, Machiavelli substitutes
what he calls animo ("spirit" or "spiritedness")
for anima ("soul").52 Whereas anima
never occurs in The Prince and the Discourses,
animo occurs frequently. Animo means a spirited
defense of one's own, especially of one's own
body; for animo defends a body and is satisfied
with that body, but anima always attempts to
transcend the body. Animo also means intent, as
when Machiavelli urges the man notable for his
quality to conceal his animo (Discourses 111.2);
but the intent, even in this case, is never contemplative
or detached from one's own concerns.
Animo is responsible for ostinazione, the obstinacy
characteristic of spirited infantry who have
planted their feet on the ground.53
Machiavelli's principle of spirited selfishness
offers something for everybody, not in a common
5"As Machiavelli personifies fortune, The Prince 25;
Discourses 11.29. See Discourses 1.53 for an instance of
the people being deceived by a "false image of good";
also 1.56, 111.43. On the cause of making the Church
powerful, see The Prince 3 (end), 11.
52As in the striking phrase, virta di corpo e di animo,
The Prince 8; Discourses 111.8; Florentine Histories
VI.6; and in grande virta di animo, The Prince 19;
grandezza dello anima, 8, 26. See also the greater reliability
of touching than seeing, The Prince 18 (end),
and the use of umori (humors of the body) in The Prince
9, 19; Discourses 1.4. Scholarly discussion of virta in
Machiavelli as a rule forgets to ask what it is that virtue
is the virtue of.
53There is republican obstinacy (Discourses 11.2), religious
obstinacy (1.14, 15), obstinacy in the infantry
(11.16, 17; 111.12), and obstinate conspirators (111.6;
The Prince 19).
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1981 Machiavelli's Political Science 305
good to which all may contribute different virtues,
but (as he says so precisely) for the common
benefit of each one (ciascuno). Each one in his
separate body is encouraged by Machiavelli in the
spirited defense of his own, because one's own
body is the only common thing that can be benefited.
Thus everybody can fight for his own glory
and yet be "good and faithful soldiers" to
Machiavelli.54 Machiavellianism can advance
without paying allegiance to Machiavelli. A new
sect will emerge with an invisible leader that will
offer princes more glory and people more security.
Not depending on the virtue of rulers but only
on virtue in the Machiavellian sense of imaginative
aggrandizement, this sect will not be subject
to the ups and downs of the cycle. States will rise
and fall, but the whole will remain strong and
mankind will progress in a condition Machiavelli
calls "the perpetual republic."55
If Machiavelli's ambition seems grandiose, we
should look carefully at the modern world we live
in to see whether our ambition, which resembles
his, is reasonable. Machiavelli, indeed, left a restraint
on human aggrandizement which has not
proved durable. Since for him there is no soul or
principle above one's own country, there could be
no universal principle beyond one's country. The
crucial political implication is that, for Machiavelli,
no patria could ever regard itself as essential
to the destiny of mankind. There could be no
chosen people, race or class. Machiavelli would
have abhorred our twentieth-century tyrannies,
but with our century in view he might have to admit
that he had left no effectual alternative to dubious
patriotism but a modern version of the
"pious cruelty" (The Prince 21) he had meant to
destroy. Twentieth-century totalitarianism promises
fantastic betterment in the human condition
from the realization of universal principles, but it
does not claim to improve the soul. It has, without
reference to soul, proved to exceed the pious
cruelty of any sect with which Machiavelli was ac-
quainted.
Perhaps, then, not the asserted existence of soul
but loss of moderation in the soul has been the
cause of our troubles. But we shall never learn
whether this is so if we hold to a political science
that routinely excludes soul from what it calls
"behavior" and flutters at the mention of virtue.
54Discourses 1.43. See The Prince 19 (end) on maintaining
a state without having the respect of peoples.
55A perpetual republic is denied in Discourses 111.17,
but affirmed in 111.22 after the remedy is found; and it
is assumed possible in 1.20; 11.5; 111.1, 3.
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