Machiavelli: The Art of Power

Six dialogues on power, virtù, and the republic

A course on the thought of Niccolò Machiavelli.

Course outline

1. The Diplomat and the Fall — Where the doctrine comes from: fourteen years serving the Florentine republic, Cesare Borgia seen at close range, the fall of 1512, and the exile in which — dressing each night in the robes of the…
2. Virtù and Fortuna — The beating heart of The Prince: the contest between virtù — the force and skill to impose form on events — and fortuna, the power of chance. Why fortune governs half our actions, and how the…
3. How Not to Be Good — The scandalous core: Machiavelli's decisive break with the 'mirror for princes' tradition. A prince must learn how NOT to be good, and use it according to necessity — cruelty and mercy, feared versus…
4. The Theorist of Liberty — The other half of Machiavelli, which the scandal of The Prince hides: in the Discourses on Livy he is a republican, and liberty is his highest good. Why a free people with good laws and good arms…
5. Conflict, the People, and Religion — Machiavelli's most radical republican claims: that the class CONFLICT between people and nobles kept Rome free, that the people are the better guardians of liberty, that religion is a civic…
6. The Historian and the Legacy — Machiavelli the historian of his own city, and what he became: the Florentine Histories on faction and the decay of liberty, the cyclical reading of history, and the man behind the myth — a patriot…

Part of the Symposium course library.