What does it take to establish-and maintain-political power? Why do some political actors succeed where others fail? And what do such experiences tell us about what it means to be politically engaged? This course grapples with an author who purports to have discovered radically new answers to these questions: Niccolò Machiavelli. Machiavelli's ideas have been subject to controversy and disagreement since their publication 500 years ago. Indeed, among the Italian diplomat's adherents we can find a cast of individuals as diverse as James Madison, Vladimir Lenin, Karl Rove, and Tupac Shakur.
This course is devoted to closely reading Machiavelli’s texts, asking how we go about interpreting them, and evaluating their chief philosophical problems. These include, among others: the relationship between morality and politics; the nature of oppression; the meaning of political freedom; the place of change and novelty in political life; and the relationship between political theory and rhetoric. In considering these topics through a "Machiavellian" lens, we do not presume that our author has the "correct" answers. Rather, this course is meant to serve as an introduction to how we approach big-picture questions in the humanities and the behavioral sciences as college students. Accordingly, this class serves as an introduction to the sort of work assigned in college. Besides parsing and debating the above topics, students will also be tasked with considering how they might apply a Machiavelli’s perspective to current-day concerns. To that end, Machiavelli's texts will be supplemented with films, contemporary commentaries, and student presentations.
This course is devoted to closely reading Machiavelli’s texts, asking how we go about interpreting them, and evaluating their chief philosophical problems. These include, among others: the relationship between morality and politics; the nature of oppression; the meaning of political freedom; the place of change and novelty in political life; and the relationship between political theory and rhetoric. In considering these topics through a "Machiavellian" lens, we do not presume that our author has the "correct" answers. Rather, this course is meant to serve as an introduction to how we approach big-picture questions in the humanities and the behavioral sciences as college students. Accordingly, this class serves as an introduction to the sort of work assigned in college. Besides parsing and debating the above topics, students will also be tasked with considering how they might apply a Machiavelli’s perspective to current-day concerns. To that end, Machiavelli's texts will be supplemented with films, contemporary commentaries, and student presentations.
- Teacher: Boris Litvin