Machiavelli Revisited: (Political Philosophy Now)

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.

Table of Contents:
Preface; I Interpreting Machiavelli; II Setting the Context; III Anti-essentialism; IV The Empirical Method; V Political Realism; VI Machiavelli's Progeny; VII Machiavelli Today; Bibliography; Index

About the Author :
Joseph Femia is lecturer in Politics at Liverpool University. He has published articles in a wide variety of scholarly journals and is the author of Gramsci's Political Thought, The Machiavellian Legacy and Marxism and Democracy.

Review :
'Femia's argument is persuasive and cogent, and his inferences about the parallels between Machiavelli and the contemporary developments in political science are indeed intriguing. However, it seems that the book's greatest merit is its insightful criticism of the prevalent modes of Machiavellian contemporary interpretation and of the contextualist approach in general'.Political Studies Review '...a significant reinterpretation of Machiavelli that should interest experts as well as the general reading public...excellent ...' The European Legacy