Machiavelli is best known for his bold realism, and The Prince is a self-conscious alternative to the moral teachings of Christian and classical thought. The author demonstrates, however, that most of Machiavelli's famous maxims are in fact derivative from ancient authors. Given the similarities between The Prince and classical texts, Machiavelli's realism must be reexamined. The author analyzes chapter 3 of The Prince to show that Machiavelli appropriates the decisive rhetorical strategy of many religious texts by appealing to an inevitable fear as the basis for his new moral outlook. If Machiavelli appropriates the methods he criticizes in others, then this article serves as an invitation to read both Machiavelli and classical thinkers with a renewed and genuine interest in the originality and realism of each.
Over the past quarter century, the Cambridge School of Intellectual History has had a profound influence on the study of political theory in the U.S. The scholarship of historians such as John Dunn, Quentin Skinner, and John Pocock has almost single-handedly defined the terms with which political scientists understand early modern thought, and consequently liberalism and its alternatives. In this essay I analyze Quentin Skinner's “Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas” as the seminal argument for the Cambridge School's interpretive strategy. In particular, I note the degree to which Skinner attacked the scholarship of Leo Strauss in order to establish the Cambridge approach. Contrary to Skinner, I argue Strauss too has a concern for genuine historical understanding. I conclude with a re-reading of Strauss' Persecution and the Art of Writing in order to show that Strauss' interpretive strategy ultimately comes much closer to the “historicity” claimed by Skinner and others.
The denial of Locke's debt to Hobbes has long been characteristic of many scholars of Locke influenced by the Cambridge School. Peter Laslett was the first to argue for this view, and he did so in conscious opposition to Leo Strauss and his interpretation of Locke. The recent discovery by Felix Waldmann of a memoir that confirms Locke's deep interest in Hobbes as well as his prudent concealment of that interest has undermined Laslett's case against Strauss. Waldmann's discovery, moreover, comes in the wake of other historical work, by Jeffrey Collins and others, that has provided further grounds for abandoning the Cambridge view of Locke. These developments have yet to lead to a serious reengagement with Strauss's interpretation of Locke, but they should, because his controversial claim about Locke's debt to Hobbes has been vindicated.
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