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Between Form and Event: Machiavelli's Theory of Political Freedom

  • Book
  • © 2000

Overview

Authors:
  1. Miguel E. Vatter

    1. Northwestern University, Evanston, USA

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Part of the book series: Topoi Library (TOPI, volume 2)

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Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. Introduction

    1. The Priority of Event over form in Machiavelli’s Discourse

      • Miguel E. Vatter
      Pages 1-23

  4. Machiavelli’s Theory of History: Modes of Encounter between Action and Time

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 131-135
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    2. The Encounter of Action and Times as Explanation of Fortuna

      • Miguel E. Vatter
      Pages 137-148

    3. From Action as Correspondence with the Times to Action as Changing the Times

      • Miguel E. Vatter
      Pages 149-165

    4. History as Effect of Free Action: Fortuna and Virtù in The Prince

      • Miguel E. Vatter
      Pages 167-193

    5. The People as Subject Matter of History: Fortuna and Virtù in the Discourses on Livy

      • Miguel E. Vatter
      Pages 195-215

  5. The Event of the Republic — The Return to Beginnings

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 217-220
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    2. The Aporetic Foundation of Political Freedom

      • Miguel E. Vatter
      Pages 221-235

    3. The Theory of Return to Beginnings

      • Miguel E. Vatter
      Pages 237-263

    4. The Revolutionary Event: Theory of Political Change

      • Miguel E. Vatter
      Pages 265-276

    5. Theory of Citizenship and Ethically-Contradictory Action

      • Miguel E. Vatter
      Pages 277-306
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Keywords

About this book

Before Machiavelli, political freedom was approached as a problem of the best distribution of the functions of ruler and ruled. Machiavelli changed the terms of freedom, requiring that its discourse address the demand for no-rule or non-domination. Political freedom would then develop only through a strategy of antagonism to every form of legitimate domination. This leads to the emergence of modern political life: any institution that wishes to rule legitimately must simultaneously be inscribed with its immanent critique and imminent subversion. For Machiavelli, the possibility of instituting the political form is conditioned by the possibility of changing it in an event of political revolution.
This book shows Machiavelli as a philosopher of the modern condition. For him, politics exists in the absence of those absolute moral standards that are called upon to legitimate the domination of man over man. If this understanding lies open to relativism and historicism, it does so in order to render effective the project of reinventing the sense of human freedom. Machiavelli's legacy to modernity is the recognition of an irreconcilable tension between the demands of freedom and the imperatives of morality.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Northwestern University, Evanston, USA

    Miguel E. Vatter

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Between Form and Event: Machiavelli's Theory of Political Freedom

  • Authors: Miguel E. Vatter

  • Series Title: Topoi Library

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9337-3

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2000

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-7923-6533-4Published: 30 November 2000

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-90-481-5547-7Published: 09 December 2010

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-015-9337-3Published: 17 April 2013

  • Series ISSN: 1389-689X

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 355

  • Topics: Political Philosophy, Political Science, Modern Philosophy, Philosophy, general

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