Enlightening article. I have one quibble. Machiavelli has been misjudged because he wrote one short easily readable book -The Prince, and a long, much more thoughtful book -Discourses on the Books of Livy- that is completely different from The Prince. The Prince is his prescription for an absolute ruler, specifically Cesar Borgia. The Discourses are a treatise on the rise and fall of republics. Jefferson, and perhaps even Xenophon would have found little to disagree with in the Discourses.
I am surprised that Leo Strauss was apparently ignorant of them. Appraising Machiavelli only on the basis of The Prince is an undergraduate error.
Enlightening article. I have one quibble. Machiavelli has been misjudged because he wrote one short easily readable book -The Prince, and a long, much more thoughtful book -Discourses on the Books of Livy- that is completely different from The Prince. The Prince is his prescription for an absolute ruler, specifically Cesar Borgia. The Discourses are a treatise on the rise and fall of republics. Jefferson, and perhaps even Xenophon would have found little to disagree with in the Discourses.
I am surprised that Leo Strauss was apparently ignorant of them. Appraising Machiavelli only on the basis of The Prince is an undergraduate error.
Extraordinary share. Those that find being transactional or guided by mimetic spirituality would learn from this and Marcus Aurelius