Machiavelli, Aristotle and Popular Republicanism - by Alessandro Mulieri (Hardcover)

About the Book

The first study to comprehensively investigate the Aristotelian roots of Niccolò Machiavelli's radical republican thought.

Book Synopsis

Machiavelli, Aristotle, and Popular Republicanism offers the first comprehensive study of the relationship between Machiavelli, Aristotle, and the Aristotelian tradition. Alessandro Mulieri shows that the conceptual language of Aristotelianism not only shaped some of Machiavelli's most radical ideas but also played a key role in the development of his popular republican thought and his critique of classical republicanism.
Employing an interdisciplinary approach that blends the history of political thought, political theory, and the history of philosophy, the book presents an original interpretation of Machiavelli's engagement with five Aristotelian themes: the nature of political science, the relationship between virtue and fortune, the preservation of tyranny, the premodern notion of democracy as "the rule of the poor", and the prudence of the multitude.
By analysing a wide range of Latin and vernacular Aristotelian texts circulating in Machiavelli's time, alongside works by several Renaissance thinkers, the book addresses longstanding challenges in interpreting Machiavelli's relationship with ancient, medieval, and early modern sources, revealing the selective and profoundly strategic nature of his engagement with the premodern tradition.

Review Quotes

Machiavelli, Aristotle, and Popular Republicanism by Alessandro Mulieri provides an indispensable corrective to the view that Machiavelli was a wholehearted opponent of Aristotle's (and Polybius's) view of mixed governments or republics. Mulieri shows definitively that the Florentine appropriated much more than he rejected salient aspects of the civic republicanism espoused by his Greek antecedents. The book is a must read in early modern political thought and republican political theory.
John P. McCormick Karl J. Weintraub Professor in Political Science and the College Faculty Director, Program in Law, Letters, and Society

Alessandro Mulieri's Machiavelli, Aristotle, and Popular Republicanismrepresents an important addition to Machiavelli scholarship. Identifying crucial angles of investigation (including virtue and fortune, but also prudence), Mulieri offers convincing explanations of Machiavelli's affinities or implicit dialogue with ancient and medieval sources. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, Machiavelli, Aristotle, and Popular Republicanismenriches our understanding of Machiavelli and his intellectual context, while offering a contribution to the history of the Aristotelian tradition.
Eva Del Soldato, Associate Professor of Italian Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Mulieri breaks new ground by connecting Machiavelli's political philosophy to Aristotelian thought-a dialogue long neglected in scholarship. This rigorous and well-researched study reveals fresh insights into fundamental questions of political theory. Essential reading for political philosophers and intellectual historians.
Filippo Del Lucchese, professor of Political Philosophy, Alma mater studiorum, Università di Bologna

About the Author

Alessandro Mulieri is Directeur de recherche at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), affiliated with Triangle - Action, Discours, Pensée Politique et Économique in Lyon. He teaches political theory and the history of political thought at Université Paris Cité and Sciences Po Paris. His research focuses on late medieval and early modern political thought, the history and theory of democracy, and twentieth-century Counter-Enlightenment political thought. His work has appeared in journals including the European Journal of Political Theory, History of Political Thought, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Storia e Politica, Raisons Politiques, History of European Ideas, and Intellectual History Review.