Friday, October 8, 2021

Rexroth on Machiavelli, 'The Prince'

From Classics Revisited (1968).

"Machiavelli realized that the student of politics must concern himself with what is, not with what should be; that if there was any meaning in historical process, it could be found only by inductive analysis of what men have actually done; and that the greatest of fallacies is to start by seeking first principles, transcendental sanctions, and final causes."

See Machiavelli, The Prince, in Great Books of the Western World (first edition, 52 Vol., 1952) volume 23, (second edition, 60 Vol., 1990) volume 21

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