Machiavelli in the Making (Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy)

The Question Of The Oeuvre -- The Concept Of Machiavellianism -- Reading The Prince. First Signs -- The Logic Of Force -- The Social Abyss And Attachment To Power -- Good And Evil, The Stable And The Unstable, The Real And The Imaginary -- The Present And The Possible -- Reading The Discourses. From The Prince To The Discourses -- Rome And The Historical Society -- Class Difference -- War, And The Difference Of Times -- Authority And The Political Subject -- The Oeuvre, Ideology, And Interpretation. Claude Lefort ; Translated From The French By Michael B. Smith. Originally Published In French As Le Travail De L'oeuvre Machiavel By Editions Gallimard, Paris, France, 2005.--t.p. Verso. Includes Bibliographical References. La 4ème de couv. indique : "In Machiavelli in the Making, the influential French scholar and public intellectual Claude Lefort introduces a wholly novel interpretation of Niccoló Machiavelli's oeuvre, revealing in the Florentine's thought a thoroughly modern concept of the political with implications for "our experience of politics here and now." Lefort extricates Machiavelli's thought from the dominant interpretations of Machiavelli as the founder of "objective" political science, which, having liberated itself from the religious and moralizing tendencies of medieval political reflection, attempts to arrive at a realistic discourse on the operations of raw power. Lefort ultimately finds that Machiavelli's discourse opens the "place of the political," which had previously been occupied by theology and morality. An essential contribution to the ongoing reassessment of Machiavelli's significance, Machiavelli in the Making also stands as a crucial text for the understanding of Lefort's later writings on democracy and totallitarianism." In Machiavelli in the Making, the influential French scholar and public intellectual Claude Lefort introduces a wholly novel interpretation of Niccoló Machiavelli's oeuvre, revealing in the Florentine's thought a thoroughly modern concept of the political with implications for "our experience of politics here and now." Lefort extricates Machiavelli's thought from the dominant interpretations of Machiavelli as the founder of "objective" political science, which, having liberated itself from the religious and moralizing tendencies of medieval political reflection, attempts to arrive at a realistic discourse on the operations of raw power. Lefort ultimately finds that Machiavelli's discourse opens the "place of the political," which had previously been occupied by theology and morality. An essential contribution to the ongoing reassessment of Machiavelli's significance, Machiavelli in the Making also stands as a crucial text for the understanding of Lefort's later writings on democracy and totallitarianism. from publisher Machiavelli in the Making is both a novel interpretation of the Florentine's work and a critical document for understanding influential French scholar and public intellectual Claude Lefort's later writings on democracy and totalitarianism.