Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Thoughts on Machiavelliby Leo Strauss
None Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. The most beautiful book, in my judgment, of the century's greatest philosopher. Leo Strauss provides a guide to the thoughts of his great teacher and rival, Niccolo Machiavelli, and therewith to his own thoughts. no reviews | add a review
Leo Strauss argued that the most visible fact about Machiavelli's doctrine is also the most useful one: Machiavelli seems to be a teacher of wickedness. Strauss sought to incorporate this idea in his interpretation without permitting it to overwhelm or exhaust his exegesis of The Prince and the Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy. "We are in sympathy," he writes, "with the simple opinion about Machiavelli [namely, the wickedness of his teaching], not only because it is wholesome, but above all because a failure to take that opinion seriously prevents one from doing justice to what is truly admirable in Machiavelli: the intrepidity of his thought, the grandeur of his vision, and the graceful subtlety of his speech." This critique of the founder of modern political philosophy by this prominent twentieth-century scholar is an essential text for students of both authors. No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)320.1Social sciences Political Science Political Science The StateLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |