The Radical Machiavelli: Politics, Philosophy and Languageoffers a partial and even partisan reading of Machiavelli, whose thought continues to divide interpreters, forcing them to confront their responsibility as contemporary thinkers in a global society.

This paper considers Niccolò Machiavelli’s contribution to a theory of constituent power. Modern authors who have analysed the concept of constituent power generally agree on its ambiguous, paradoxical and apparently contradictory essence. With few exceptions, Machiavelli is absent from both the historical reconstructions of and the theoretical debates on the origin of constituent power. My argument is built around two main theses: reintroducing Machiavelli to the debate on constituent power offers an original response to the theoretical fallacies and inconsistencies identified (...) by modern scholars. In particular, Machiavelli’s philosophy contributes to the comprehension of constituent power as a living force within social order. My second thesis is that by tracing the source of constituent power back to Machiavelli, we can overcome the main theoretical problem implied by this concept, namely the problem of the priority of the factual or the juridical, by providing a vision that emphasises their immanent coexistence. (shrink)

Amazons and giants, snakes and gorgons, centaurs and gryphons: monsters abounded in ancient culture. They raise enduring philosophical questions: about chaos and order; about divinity and perversion; about meaning and purpose; about the hierarchy of nature or its absence. Del Lucchese grapples with the concept of monstrosity, showing how ancient philosophers explored metaphysics, ontology, theology and politics to respond to the challenge of radical otherness in nature and in thought.

The Political Philosophy of Niccolo Machiavelli is a clear account of Machiavelli's thought, major theories and central ideas. Geared towards the specific requirements of students who need to reach a sound understanding of Machiavelli's ideas, it is the ideal companion to the study of this influential and challenging philosopher.

Niccolo Machiavelli is one of the very few authors to assign a positive role and political value to the theme of social conflict. Although not repudiating this principle, in the Discourses Machiavelli seems to distinguish between a form of conflict that is moderate and positive and another form that is violent and extreme, ultimately leading to the ruin of Rome. In his more mature work Florentine Histories, the tone changes and the distinction becomes less consistent. Moreover, analysis of the institutional (...) results of conflict is enriched by novel elements, revealing Machiavelli's attention to the economic causes and motives of social struggles. While in the first model crisis and power are counter-posed to one another, in the second they are inseparable and this couplet becomes the key to a theoretical understanding of Machiavelli's political thought. (shrink)

Niccolo Machiavelli is one of the very few authors to assign a positive role and political value to the theme of social conflict. Although not repudiating this principle, in the Discourses Machiavelli seems to distinguish between a form of conflict that is moderate and positive and another form that is violent and extreme, ultimately leading to the ruin of Rome. In his more mature work Florentine Histories, the tone changes and the distinction becomes less consistent. Moreover, analysis of the institutional (...) results of conflict is enriched by novel elements, revealing Machiavelli's attention to the economic causes and motives of social struggles. While in the first model crisis and power are counter-posed to one another, in the second they are inseparable and this couplet becomes the key to a theoretical understanding of Machiavelli's political thought. (shrink)

The controversy over teleology raged in the early modern period with particular intensity. In this paper, I will show that Guillaume Lamy represents a current of antifinalism, devoid of weakness, and far from compromise with his adversaries. This antifinalism makes of Lamy not so much a sincere supporter of the unknowability of God in other words, a proto but rather a radical Lucretian materialist, whose aim is to openly distance himself equally from the partial Cartesian rejection of final causes and (...) from the sugar–coated Epicureanism of the Gassendists. (shrink)

McCormick’s book engages with the theoretical and political positions discussed by the Italian philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli about five centuries ago, and, in particular, the creation of the tribunes of the plebs. In ancient Rome, plebeian power had been institutionalised through the creation of tribunes. According to McCormick, a similar institution would offer a legitimate forum for expression to the people in modern democracies. In fact, following Machiavelli’s suggestions, this would contribute to the implementation of a new form of democracy, more (...) respectful of the people and more eager to defend values such as freedom and independence from the influence of the powerful and the rich. In this review, Filippo Del Lucchese comments on McCormick’s book from a Marxist point of view. One of the strongest points of the book is the discussion of the opposition between democracy and republicanism. Over the last decades, the latter has in fact been absorbed into the sphere of influence of the Cambridge School, and neutralised, or at least defused its most interesting and radical aspects. McCormick’s attempt to repoliticise the Machiavellian discourse is indeed praiseworthy, yet, by mainly focusing on the ‘institutionalisation’ of popular power, McCormick fails to discern the most radical elements of Machiavelli’s thought. From this angle, the review discusses McCormick’s use of the category of ‘class’ and offers a different perspective on the revolutionary dimension. (shrink)

Résumé Entre la construction d’une monstruosité étatique absolue, censée anéantir toute rébellion par la crainte et la menace (d’un côté) et la monstrification de la part du Pouvoir de tout «autre» rebelle, hérétique, contestataire (de l’autre), l’auteur indique la possibilité d’un troisième concept de la monstruosité. Une monstruosité qui échappe à cette alternative pour affirmer son altérité radicale, monstrueuse non pas par son apparence mais par sa revendication d’autonomie par rapport à toute norme transcendante et finaliste, dans l’immanence absolue de (...) sa condition actuelle et puissante. (shrink)

In this article, I explore the meaning and function of Lycurgus in Machiavelli’s thought. While the exemplarity of the mythical Spartan legislator progressively fades in Machiavelli’s thought in favour of the Roman model, Lycurgus’ reforms are central in Machiavelli’s works on two issues of primary importance: wealth and land distribution. First, I analyse Machiavelli’s use of the ancient sources on both Lycurgus and other Spartan legislators to show how the former builds a selective and strategically balanced reading of the ancient (...) sources to build an image of the latter as a pro-popular ruler and of the subsequent Spartan reformers as followers not only of the mythical legislator generally, but also of his most controversial and popularly oriented attempts to reform property ownership in ancient Sparta. Lycurgus reveals how Machiavelli, far from seeing mixed government as the best form of government, promotes a strongly anti-aristocratic model. Second, I show that in Machiavelli’s thought the Spartan question can largely be seen as a background for his reading of Roman history, particularly its most crucial, conflictual and controversial period – that in which the Gracchi brothers’ attempted to achieve agrarian reform. (shrink)

In Spinoza, what I call the ‘Being Individual Multiple’ is the multitudo. Its form of life is Democracy, understood as the autonomous and conflictual organization of collective dynamics and not one form of government among others. Combining an original mode of argumentation with a critical discussion of opposing interpretations, I maintain that democracy is the translation into politics of the third and highest kind of knowledge in Spinoza, intuitive science. I argue moreover that the multitudo self-organized in a democracy has (...) the capacity to experiment and express a different rationality with respect to the singular individual. Wisdom and democracy thus converge to give life to something unknown and original in western political modernity. (shrink)

"Alexandre Matheron is considered one of the most important interpreters of Spinoza's philosophy in the 20th century. These 20 essays, translated into English for the first time, focus on ontology, knowledge, politics and ethics in Spinoza, his predecessors and his contemporaries."--Publisher description.

Štúdia interpretuje udalostnú hermeneutiku francúzskeho fenomenológa Clauda Romana, ktorú postuloval v publikáciách Udalosť a svet, Udalosť a čas a Tam je, a to cez prizmu umeleckej skúsenosti. Štúdia si kladie za cieľ interpretovať pojmy ako udalosť, advenant, ex-per-iancia, rekonfigurácia a ničota a poukázať na ich súvislosť s umením. Pracovná téza je: Advenant býva umelecky. Cieľom štúdie tak nie je len analýza a pred-stavenie Romanovho diela, ale aj vyzdvihnutie tendencií smerujúcich k chápaniu udalosti a advenanta v umeleckých kontúrach. Štúdia preto (...) analyzuje autorov kontext, ktorý tvorí fenomenologická hermeneutika, predovšetkým diela Martina Heideggera a Henriho Maldineya. V súvislosti s rekonfiguratívnym aspektom advenantovho bytia sa v štúdii stáva ústredným konceptom pojem figúry, z ktorého následne vyplýva problém herectva. (shrink)

Štúdia interpretuje udalostnú hermeneutiku francúzskeho fenomenológa Clauda Romana, ktorú postuloval v publikáciách Udalosť a svet, Udalosť a čas a Tam je, a to cez prizmu umeleckej skúsenosti. Štúdia si kladie za cieľ interpretovať pojmy ako udalosť, advenant, ex-per-iancia, rekonfigurácia a ničota a poukázať na ich súvislosť s umením. Pracovná téza je: Advenant býva umelecky. Cieľom štúdie tak nie je len analýza a pred-stavenie Romanovho diela, ale aj vyzdvihnutie tendencií smerujúcich k chápaniu udalosti a advenanta v umeleckých kontúrach. Štúdia preto (...) analyzuje autorov kontext, ktorý tvorí fenomenologická hermeneutika, predovšetkým diela Martina Heideggera a Henriho Maldineya. V súvislosti s rekonfiguratívnym aspektom advenantovho bytia sa v štúdii stáva ústredným konceptom pojem figúry, z ktorého následne vyplýva problém herectva. (shrink)

In a discussion of Victor Delbos, the doyen of early twentieth-century French Spinozism, Alexandre Matheron recalls with fondness a remark once made by his former doctoral sponsor, and fellow Spino...

In a discussion of Victor Delbos, the doyen of early twentieth-century French Spinozism, Alexandre Matheron recalls with fondness a remark once made by his former doctoral sponsor, and fellow Spino...

Prispevek obravnava nekatere pojme politične filozofije Clauda Leforta. Pokazati želi, da za rekonstrukcijo politične filozofije, ki se je loteva Lefort, ni toliko konstitutiven njen prelom z znanstvenim diskurzom, ampak vse prej pojem simbolnega, ime za družbeno, ki je zavezano razliki in delitvi.