Machiavelli's ethics / Erica Benner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Benner, Erica.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527.

Machiavelli, Niccolò.

Ethics.

Physical Description:

527 p. 24 cm

1 online resource (543 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Machiavelli's Ethics challenges the most entrenched understandings of Machiavelli, arguing that he was a moral and political philosopher who consistently favored the rule of law over that of men, that he had a coherent theory of justice, and that he did not defend the "Machiavellian" maxim that the ends justify the means. By carefully reconstructing the principled foundations of his political theory, Erica Benner gives the most complete account yet of Machiavelli's thought. She argues that his difficult and puzzling style of writing owes far more to ancient Greek sources than is usually recognized, as does his chief aim: to teach readers not how to produce deceptive political appearances and rhetoric, but how to see through them. Drawing on a close reading of Greek authors--including Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, and Plutarch--Benner identifies a powerful and neglected key to understanding Machiavelli. This important new interpretation is based on the most comprehensive study of Machiavelli's writings to date, including a detailed examination of all of his major works: The Prince, The Discourses, The Art of War, and Florentine Histories. It helps explain why readers such as Bacon and Rousseau could see Machiavelli as a fellow moral philosopher, and how they could view The Prince as an ethical and republican text. By identifying a rigorous structure of principles behind Machiavelli's historical examples, the book should also open up fresh debates about his relationship to later philosophers, including Rousseau, Hobbes, and Kant.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

I Contexts

Chapter 1. Civil Reasonings: Machiavelli's Practical Filosofia

Chapter 2. Ancient Sources: Dissimulation in Greek Ethics

II. Foundations

Chapter 3. Imitation and Knowledge

Chapter 4. Necessity and Virtue

Chapter 5. Human Nature and Human Orders

III. Principles

Chapter 6. Free Agency and Desires for Freedom

Chapter 7. Free Orders

Chapter 8. Justice and Injustice

Chapter 9. Ends and Means

IV Politics

Chapter 10. Ordinary and Extraordinary Authority

Chapter 11. Legislators and Princes

Chapter 12. Expansion and Empire

Conclusions

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612458521

9781282458529

1282458523

9781400831845

1400831849

OCLC:

609855958