Machiavelli on the Primacy of the Political

This essay examines whether – or the extent to which – Machiavelli’s presentation of theoretical questions is dependent on his practical goals in The Prince and the Discourses on Livy (e.g., gaining employment with Lorenzo de Medici with The Prince, or conversely, as Spinoza suggests, disillusioning the subjects of princes by instructing them about what they can expect from their princes in The Prince, while advising citizens of republics how best to order their regimes in the Discourses) or conversely, his practical goals are dependent on theoretical assumptions. The essay argues that Machiavelli’s practical goals are ultimately in the service of his theoretical assumptions; on the one hand, Machiavelli assigns a primacy to the political, including many things, such as morality, religion, and even our collective shared humanity, to the sphere of the political, but on the other, he intends for his best readers to transcend the political through their philosophical insight into the primacy of the political. Paradoxically, one transcends the political only through insight into its primacy. This involves an ironic amoralism, which satirizes moralism but also the claim that one might transcend it altogether. Machiavelli’s humour is rooted in this self-referential paradox.