The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World by Daniel J. Boorstin

Author:Daniel J. Boorstin [Boorstin, Daniel J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, History, Philosophy, World
ISBN: 9780679462705
Google: 8tM4pgH3xTcC
Amazon: B000FC1KBQ
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 1998-12-03T08:00:00+00:00

PART FIVE

THE LIBERAL WAY

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end.

It is itself the highest political end.

—LORD ACTON, HISTORY OF FREEDOM (1907)

23

Machiavelli’s Reach for a Nation

The Renaissance in Europe, a great age of poetry, the arts, and architecture, and epochal adventures of discovery, never produced a great work of theoretical philosophy, nor a work of history to live alongside Herodotus and Thucydides. The widening vistas of experience diverted man’s seeking spirit from the ways of the Creator to new areas of man’s own dominion. So the age did produce the pioneer work of modern political science. It grew out of the experience of a perceptive and eloquent Florentine Seeker, active in the life of the Italian city-state and its battles with the papacy. The name of this first modern political scientist would become an eponym for the evil and devious ways of politicians. The reputation of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) has suffered in history. He has been treated as a shallow polemicist for political immorality when he was a subtle interpreter, a Seeker of the grand truths of European political experience. His thought judged solely by his hundred-page essay, The Prince, has been as little appreciated as Karl Marx’s ideas would have been if judged solely by The Communist Manifesto without referring to Das Kapital. To rediscover Machiavelli is to see the foundations of modern political science.

Born in Florence to an impoverished father of a noble family, who had been denied public office as an insolvent debtor, Niccolò did not receive the education customary for his prominent family. As a youth he was mostly self-educated by the books he read and by an occasional private tutor. He learned Latin, but not Greek. So, luckily for his later work, he was never overwhelmed by pedantry or erudition and retained the alertness and curiosity of the amateur. In the turnover in the government of Florence after Savonarola had been tortured, hanged, and burned, the young Machiavelli in 1498 was employed in the new government in the “second chancery,” which dealt with foreign affairs and defense.

Minor diplomatic missions to France opened his eyes to the working of strong government. Returning to Florence, he saw how the ruthless Cesare Borgia had created a new state for himself in central Italy. Determined to strengthen his home city of Florence, Machiavelli promoted his idea of displacing the usual foreign mercenaries by a militia drawn from the people themselves. Missions to Pope Julius II, and across the Alps to Germany, produced his perceptive reports on the strength of the enemies of Florence and the invaders of Italy. He commanded his militia successfully in the capture of Pisa and in defense of Florence against the invaders. In the volatile wars of the city-states his patron the gonfalonier (chief magistrate) Soderini was removed, and in 1512, when the Medici returned to power in Florence, Machiavelli lost his place in the government. The Medici imprisoned and tortured him on suspicion of conspiracy, but he gave no false confession.

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