Machiavelli revisited

Machiavelli's political opinions have been subjected to a bewildering variety of often contradictory interpretations. Femia attempts to guide the reader through this maze of interpretations, arguing that the inconsistencies and ambiguities of Machiavelli's work contribute to these contradictions. Femia demonstrates that Machiavelli was an anti-metaphysical empiricist who sought to free political thought from all theological preconceptions or residues by challenging the assumption that there exists some unifying pattern that prescribes their proper behaviour to all animate creatures. Machiavelli's work reflects the Renaissance growth of secular humanism and empiricism, with its emphasis on knowledge derived from observation of the particular rather than generality or moral principle. Femia shows that Machiavelli's political realism illustrates the discrepancy between imaginary polities and the real functioning of states, between the ethics of political moralists and the cynical opportunism of practical politicians. For Machiavelli, what ought to be done must be defined in terms of want is practicable. In addition to analysing the intellectual and social roots of his thought and presenting it in a biographical and cultural context, Femia demonstrates the relevance of Machiavelli for modern world and his impact on twentieth-century thought, especially in Italy, and on both classical and Marxist thinkers. Machiavelli is the true progenitor of modern political science and the first political thinker to separate the analytical and normative modes of inquiry.