Machiavelli and the history of practical wisdom – Introduction

Résumé

Throughout the history of its influence, people have found Machiavelli’s The Prince many things, but a work of rhetoric has rarely been one of them. Two recent readings, however, suggest the timeliness of exploring its rhetorical dimensions. Kenneth Burke has treated The Prince as instruction for an administrative rhetoric, while J.G.A. Pocock has read it as a treatise on political innovation and stabilization. I propose a reading of The Prince that builds on Burke’s and Pocock’s partial accounts to produce a reading of the entire text. Considering The Prince as a piece of rhetorical invention will show the connection between an administrative rhetoric and a concern for stable innovation, and it will connect both of those ideas to the text.