How Aristotelian is Machiavelli?

ENThe paper provides a philosophical comparison between Machiavelli’s conceptions of virtu and politics and Aristotle’s political thought and virtue ethics, argues that Machiavelli moves away from the classical conception of cardinal virtues (justice, wisdom, courage, and temperance) which were so essential i Aristotle’s political philosophy. The conceptions of ultimate human good also differ. For Aristotle the most eudiamonious human activity was philosophical contemplation, while Machiavelli puts far more emphasis on politics. Despite these differences the paper concludes that Machiavelli’s understanding of republican politics have important similarities with Aristotle’s teleological account of politics.Why is it important to raise the title question? One way of looking at it is to acknowledge our philosophical commitment to, say, Aristotle and then try to establish our position vis-a-vis another important philosopher, say, Machiavelli. Such philosophical exercise presupposes a partisan way of doing philosophy - it always has its own charm not least because it is never boring. A reader of such a philosophical text is asked to take a position with regard to the contentious philosophical issues debated in the text. There are many partisan philosophers in the history of European philosophy - Socrates, Marx, Nietzsche, Hayek, MacIntyre, to name but a few. There are also grave dangers in engaging in this type of philosophizing. It is often too tempting and indeed very easy to become biased towards a philosopher or a problem in question. In this short paper I will try to balance between a partisan way of asking some Aristotelian questions to Machiavelli and a more neutral attempt to compare Aristotle’s and Machiavelli’s conceptions of virtue and politics. In so doing I hope to highlight some of the main differences between these two very influential political philosophers. I will also seek to show that despite the apparent differences between Aristotle and Machiavelli there are also some important continuities in their work, especially as far as the republican notion of politics is concerned. [From the publication]