Programme

The course offers a rigorous analysis of the foundation of modern politics through the thought of Niccolò Machiavelli. Moving away from the interpretative frameworks of humanistic treatises, the course will focus on the principle of "effectual truth" and the redefinition of the autonomy of political praxis set forth in The Prince and the Discourses. The investigation will center on crucial problems in political theory: the role of contingency (fortuna) in human action, the constant tension between corruption and the renewal of institutional orders, and, above all, the constitutive function of social conflict (tumults) as a guarantee of republican liberty. The phenomenology of political risk will also be studied through Machiavelli's analysis of conspiracies. In the background, the reading of primary texts will be consistently interwoven with and problematized by the divergent perspectives of contemporary historiographical debates. Sasso's realism, Skinner's republicanism, Althusser's materialism, and the most recent interpretations of McCormick's "Machiavellian democracy" will serve as interpretative prisms to highlight the full modernity of Machiavellian categories and their enduring capacity to decode the crises of modern institutions.

Core Documentation

Machiavelli, The Prince, Cambridge University Press, (Chapp 15-20).
Discourses on Livy, University of Chicago Press. Book I (chapp. 1-18, 25-27, 37-40, 53-58) and Book III (chap. 6)

Attendance

Not mandatory, but strongly encouraged

Type of evaluation

The exam will be conducted orally and is structured to assess both the student's independent critical understanding and their precise knowledge of the subject matter. The interview will begin by allowing the student to present a topic of their choosing from the syllabus. This initial presentation will be followed by a direct dialogue designed to verify the logical coherence and significance of the proposed argument, as well as the student's ability to navigate the text independently. In the second part, the exam will proceed with more specific, detailed questions to ensure a thorough and accurate knowledge of the assigned texts, the author's conceptual frameworks, and the historical-philosophical context covered during the course.