Machiavelli, Epicureanism and the Ethics of Democracy.
Recent scholarship on the political thought of Niccolò Machiavelli has demonstrated the extent to which the latter's republicanism is of a populist type, and a potentially important resource for contemporary democratic theory. Although work has been produced on the constitutional form of the Machiav...
| Published in: | Theoria: A Journal of Social & Political Theory Vol. 70; no. 174; pp. 53 - 82 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Berghahn Books
Mar2023
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=163234666&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 163234666 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00405817 LUX jtl: Theoria: A Journal of Social & Political Theory issn: 00405817 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Mar2023 vid: 70 iid: 174 pid: 1130 pub: Berghahn Books artinfo: ui: 163234666 10.3167/th.2023.7017404 ppf: 53 ppct: 29 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 809KB tig: atl: Machiavelli, Epicureanism and the Ethics of Democracy. aug: au: Holman, Christopher affil: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore su: Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527 Lucretius Carus, Titus, ca. 99 B.C.-55 B.C. Democracy Scholarly method Political philosophy Physics Republicanism Philosophy of nature sug: subj: Democracy Scholarly method Political philosophy Physics Republicanism Philosophy of nature Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527 Lucretius Carus, Titus, ca. 99 B.C.-55 B.C. keyword: democracy difference Epicurus Lucretius Machiavelli republicanism democracy difference Epicurus Lucretius Machiavelli republicanism ab: Recent scholarship on the political thought of Niccolò Machiavelli has demonstrated the extent to which the latter's republicanism is of a populist type, and a potentially important resource for contemporary democratic theory. Although work has been produced on the constitutional form of the Machiavellian republic, less effort has been made to articulate the theoretical assumptions upon which the advocacy of such a republic is ethically grounded. Here, I attempt to locate the democratic ethical imperative in the affirmation of a fundamental human difference. Influenced by the Epicurean tradition, Machiavelli's natural philosophy considers material entities as absolute singularities lacking internal teleological direction, their movement the productive result of contingent encounters. One cannot assume a natural or pre-social identity of desire between persons. Democracy is the ethically preferred regime because it is the one that is capable of facilitating the expression of this human uniqueness. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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