Machiavelli Against More
The Religion and Thought Service of Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) – Sobhan Kiani; “Political Philosophy in the Age of Renaissance” by Michael Hornqvist, translated by Aref Masoudi, has been published by Qasidesara Publications. This book is the thirteenth volume of “The Oxford Handbook of the History of Political Philosophy”, edited by George Klosko. This collection belongs to a category of works that discuss fundamental issues in the history of political philosophy from several angles. This collection consists of articles published by one of the most reputable universities and publishers in the world, Oxford. Each of these articles has unique characteristics that distinguish it from other works in this collection.
The Oxford Handbook
The Oxford Handbook is structured into four main sections. The first section, titled “Method,” presents and examines theories on the methods of study and research in the history of political philosophy in several articles.
The second section deals with the history of political philosophy, from ancient Greece to the contemporary era, and primarily presents the ideas of political philosophers within schools and historical periods, in terms of their importance and influence, rather than focusing solely on their opinions.
The third section of this collection is dedicated to fundamental concepts of political thought, from ancient to modern, such as state, sovereignty, social contract, feminism, and more.
The fourth section also briefly covers the history of political philosophy in the East.
Political Philosophy in the Age of Renaissance
As mentioned, the current article is dedicated to the thirteenth volume of “The Oxford Handbook of the History of Political Philosophy,” titled “Political Philosophy in the Age of Renaissance” by Michael Hornqvist, translated by Aref Masoudi, and published by Qasidesara Publications. This book examines the developments in political thought during the Renaissance and the transition from medieval political philosophy to modern thought.
This writing emphasizes two of the most prominent and influential thinkers of the Renaissance era: Niccolò Machiavelli and Thomas More. The special importance of these two stems, on one hand, from the unparalleled quality and richness of their works, and on the other hand, from the connection of their research approaches to politics that has continued to our time.
The Renaissance, as presented in this book, is both a golden age of culture and great creations and a period of transition struggling to control and ultimately surrender to historical forces that it itself had unleashed.
In the second section of the book, titled “Machiavelli and Florence,” the author shows that Machiavelli’s ideas are a product of his lived experience in the unstable political environment of Florence. This is when Machiavelli separated politics from ethics and emphasized the preservation of power.
In this section, Machiavelli’s theory is briefly explained. The author considers the founding of states a recurring and central theme in Machiavelli’s works and an appropriate starting point for exploring his arguments. He notes that none of the classical writers, with the exception of Plato, gave as much importance to this subject as Machiavelli did.
Machiavelli in his Discourses, discussed the founding of states in general, and particularly in Rome. In “The Prince,” he also considers good laws along with good arms as the foundation of all states.
Machiavelli believed that a prince needs two things to contend: one is law and the other is recourse to force. However, he does not consider force and laws sufficient for a stable foundation. According to Machiavelli, any prince, especially new rulers, must fear everything and everyone without the support of the people.
At the end of this section, it is mentioned that ultimately, Machiavelli, due to his Roman and classical dogmas, by insisting on conceptualizing his ideal republic from the perspective of honor, virtue, dominance, and glory instead of free trade, enlightened self-interest, and wealth accumulation, could only provide a formal framework for such a new political-economic system but remained alien to its actual content.
The next section of the book addresses Thomas More’s Utopia. Here, economics and capitalism, which are overlooked in Machiavelli’s theory, engage us excessively in Utopia. In his treatise “Utopia,” he discusses the impacts of capitalist exploitation more than anyone else. In his Utopia, a picture of a just and communal society is seen, which, unlike Machiavelli, is structured based on virtue and reason, not on power and force.
The last section of the book deals with a dialogue that never historically occurred; instead, it is a symbolic and analytical dialogue between Machiavelli and Thomas More to show the ideological conflict between two different perspectives in the Age of Renaissance. Machiavelli, representing political realism and the preservation of power in this era, and Thomas More, with an ethical and humanistic view, believing that politics should serve the people.
Among the contradictions between these two that the author points out is that Machiavelli considered conflict constructive, while the other side viewed it as potentially destructive but beneficial if managed correctly.
The outcome of this dialogue is that; while Machiavelli’s theory failed to account for changing economic realities, More equally neglected the potential impact of scientific and technological developments. Political thought in the Age of Renaissance constantly oscillates between power and virtue, and ideal and reality. Neither Machiavelli’s extreme realism can build a just society, nor can More’s ethical idealism manage politics in the real world.
