ISBN: 1859847110 9781859847114

Category: Philosophy / History & Surveys / General

Page count: 136

Displacing traditional controversies over the Florentine diplomat, Althusser argues for the profound unity of the Machiavellian problematic, as deployed in the revolutionary manifesto of The Prince and the experimental historical comparisons of the Discourses. Machiavelli's apparent theoretical object - the laws of politics or history - is revealed to be a determinate practical objective: the foundation and preservation of a national-popular state. But if Machiavelli can specify the conditions for a fruitful encounter between virtu (political agency) and fortuna (the contingency of the real), his grasp of the necessity of contingency renders him the supreme artisan of an aleatory materialism. Shedding new light on the richly complex thought of its author and his subject, Machiavelli and Us will be welcomed by students of Machiavelli and Althusser alike.