The Machiavellian Legacy: Origin and Outcomes of the Conflict Between Politics and Morality in Modernity

M.E. Vatter

Working Papers from European Institute - Political and Social Sciences

Abstract: The purpose of this essay is to offer a new description of Machiavelli's legacy to the political and philosophical discourse of modernity. The author takes as his starting point Strauss's interpretation of this legacy because he proposes its strongest version, one which is adopted, in its central points, even by thinkers who wish to defend, rather than reject, the project of modernity. Put bluntly, Strauss argues that modern political thought, from Machiavelli and Hobbes, through Rousseau, Kant and Hegel, culminating in Nietzsche, is thoroughly historicist, by which he means that it cannot "answer the question of right and wrong or of the best social order in a universally valid manner, in a manner valid for all historical epochs, as political philosophy requires".

Keywords: MORALITY; POLITICS; MODERNITY (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 68 pages
Date: 1999
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fth:europs:99/2

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