Prospectus

This course will examine Machiavelli's political works. Perhaps the overriding question about Machiavelli is what is relevant about Machiavelli to modern times. What, in other words, is Machiavelli's enduring significance as a political theorist. Perhaps the answer to this is not much, or perhaps it is everything. To answer this question, we need to take up more discrete questions: what is Machiavelli's view of the place of politics in human endeavour? What were his intentions in writing as he did, that is, what is his method? And how are we to understand the central concepts of his work: glory, fortune, liberty, and state?

Requirements

Conference participation in good faith. Occasional writing in class or for the following conference. There will be a midterm and a final exam. Both exams will have inclass and take home essay components. You must check your email regularly as this will be the principle way in which I will communicate the readings for the following class.

Readings

Machiavelli, Selected Political Writings will be our central text supplemented by the Mandragola. As secondary readings, we will be using the huge two volume edition of Machiavelli (1997) edited by Dunn and Harris. This collection, comprising some 54 articles, contains all the main secondary articles on Machiavelli since 1827. The collection, costing some 400 dollars is not available in paperback, but two sets are on reserve. Treat your reserve privileges with care so that other students may also have the opportunity to prepare for class in a timely way.

Reading List

Conferences, by their nature, are discussions that can run in many directions. Sometimes a particular text is not exhausted in one conference, and sometimes we can run through several articles at once. I have no interest in constraining your thoughts and reflections, but rather pushing them to their logical conclusions. In light of these facts about conferences, it would be premature for me to insist on a rigid timetable of readings for the course.

What I offer instead is a reading list. By the time the course ends you will have read both Machiavelli's Selected Political Writings and much of the Dunn and Harris, ed. Machiavelli (last time we completed 3/4 of Volume II and about 1/2 of Volume 1). Your class reading may vary from one article/chapter of 20 pages (which I expect will require close reading) to three articles approximating about 75 pages. Mastering these articles alone would be the task of a graduate student. However, as the attached supplemental bibliography makes clear, this compendium scarcely scratches the surface of Machiavelli scholarship, and we may range a bit into one or two sources on this list.

During each class, I will consider where we are and what we need to consider. I will then determine what the next set of readings are based on your conference participation. Be cautioned that I may think it worthwhile not to read anything but rather to ask you to write your thoughts on paper for the following class.

Reading List for 2005 Seminar

M: Introduction
W: Machiavelli, Selected Political Writings, “Letter to Vettori,” 1-5,
The Prince, Chapters 25 and 26 (74-81 in SPW).
Flanagan, “The Concept of Fortuna in Machiavelli,” in Dunn and Harris, Machiavelli II;109-138.

M: Labor day
W: Assignment (Machiavelli’s Response to Good Fortune/Good Condition Theorists)
Rejali, “Resisting Torture: How to Resist Inevitable Violence”

M: The Prince, Chapters 1-10
W: From Dunn and Harris:
Volume I: 11; Felix Gilbert (1951), "On Machiavelli's Idea of Virtu"
Volume II: 8; John Plamenatz (1972) "In Search of Machiavellian Virtu"
Volume II: 9; Russell Price (1977) The Theme of Gloria in Machiavelli.

M: Close reading of the three Dunn and Harris articles continued
W: From Dunn and Harris:
Volume I: 23; Chabod "Introduction to the Prince"
Volume I: 24; Chabod, "Machiavelli's Method and Style."
Volume I: 27; Renzo Sereno, "A Falsification by Machiavelli,"
Volume II:15; Harvey Mansfield, "On the Impersonality of the Modern State"

M: The Prince, Chapters 11-26.
W: The Prince, Chapters 11-26.

M: The Discourses, Chapters 1-13, 16-18, 21, 26, 27, 29. 32, 34, 42, 43, 46, 49,50, 53-55, 58
W: From Dunn and Harris:
Volume II: 2; Caroline Robbins, "Influence or coincidence - A question for students of Machiavelli"
Volume II: 3; Lev Kamenev, "Prevace to Machiavelli"
Volume II: 6; Whitfield, "Machiavelli's Use of Livy"

M: The Discourses Continued
Volume II: 1 Hans Baron, "Machiavelli: The Republican Citizen and Author of the Prince."
W: The Discourses, Book II
Wootton, “Introduction” to the SPW

Fall Break

Midterm Exam Week

M: From Dunn and Harris:
Volume II: 12; Berlin "The Originality of Machiavelli"
Volume II: 5; Merleau Ponty, "A Note on Machiavelli"
W: From Dunn and Harris
Volume II; 11 Pocock, "Machiavelli and Guicciardini"
Volume II: 21 Skinner "The State"
Volume II: 15 Mansfield "On the Impersonality of the Modern State" (REREAD)

M: From Dunn and Harris
Volume II: 18 Skinner, “The Paradoxes of Political Liberty”
Volume II: 15 Kristeller, "The Moral Thought of Renaissance Humanism"
W: From Dunn and Harris
Volume I: 25: Mattingly "Machiavelli's Prince: Political Science or Political Satire."
Volume II: 10 Colish: Cicero's De Officiis and Machiavelli's Prince
Volume II: 16 Pocock, "Machiavelli in the Liberal Cosmos."

M: From Dunn and Harris
Volume II: 17 Kahn, “Virtue and the Example of Agathocles"
Volume II: 20 Kahn, "Reduction and the Praise of Disunion in Machiavelli's Discourses"
W: Discussion of articles Continued

M: Parel, The Machiavellian Cosmos, Introduction, Chapter 2, 3, 5 and 6.
W: Ivison, The Self and Liberty, Introduction and pp. 53-79 (on republican liberty)

Thanksgiving

M: Ivision again
W: Mandragola,
From Kahn and Ascolli, Machiavelli and the Discourse of Literature, 81-144.
Ferroni "Transformation and Adaptation"
Martinez, "Benefit of Absence"

M: Hornqvist's Machiavelli and Empire, Chapter 1, "Another Philosophy" and Chapter 4, "To Destroy Them or to Live There."
W: Wrap up and Exam