The Discourses

Ranked #25 in Political Philosophy, Ranked #53 in Political Theorysee more rankings.

"It is not the well-being of individuals that makes cities great, but the well-being of the community"

Few figures in intellectual history have proved as notorious and ambiguous as Niccolò Machiavelli. But while his treatise The Prince made his name synonymous with autocratic ruthlessness and cynical manipulation, The Discourses (c.1517) shows a radically different outlook on the world of politics. In this carefully argued commentary on Livy's history of republican Rome, Machiavelli proposed a system of government that would uphold civic freedom and security by instilling the...
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