HSTEU401
SUGGESTED PAPER TOPICS FOR SECOND PAPER ON MACHIAVELLI
(See also link to topics on
women)
LENGTH:8-10 page paper, typed, double spaced, no covers (just a title page)
DUE DATE: Monday Dec. 7 th in class. I’m glad to look at rough
drafts.
TOPICS: Students are free to formulate their own topics based on course
readings or to pursue any Renaissance Italy topic of interest to them, but run
your topic by me before starting. Numerous individuals from this period
make compelling subjects:
Cosimo and Lorenzo dei Medici, Savonarola, Caesar Borgia, Machiavelli, Leo X
(first Medici Pope), Julius II (the warrior Pope); among the artists, Leonardo
da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael. If you want to write on any of these figures,
I can suggest readings and themes to pursue. The collections of
biographies by Vespasiano (Lives of Illustrious Men) and Vasari’s Lives
of the Artists are good places to start. But any such papers would reading
extra reading.
Topics on Machiavelli: use the The Prince, and relevant selections,
from Discourses and Letters in Adams Norton Critical
Edition. The Penguin edition of Discourses on Livy includes
excellent introduction to Machiavelli’s political thought by Bernard Crick; I
will post links to this and another essay by David Wootton on The Prince
(both are optional reading). If you are interested in reading more of
Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy, there are multiple copies in UW
Libraries.
1. Discuss the role of force and
violence in the conduct of Machiavelli's Prince. Are these
justified for their own sake or only as a means to an end?
2. Discuss the concepts of virtù
and fortuna in Machiavelli's thought. What aspects of 15th C.
Italian history contributed to his stress on these concepts? Optional: How does
republican virtù (in Discourses) differ from princely virtù?
3. Machiavelli is often described as the
first political scientist. Can you see the beginnings of a "science
of politics" in The Prince and Discourses? What kinds
of general rules govern political actions, and what kind of evidence does he
use to demonstrate the workings of these rules?
4. How did Machiavelli’s career as a
diplomat for the Florentine republic shape his understanding of Italian politics?
Which do you see as a more important influence on his thought, humanism or his
own political experience? (For this topic see Letters in
5. Compare Machiavelli’s attitude to
Roman religion in the Discourses with his attitude to Christianity and
the
6. Since Machiavelli was a committed republican during his active
political career, some historians have questioned the sincerity of the views
expressed in The Prince. How serious is the conflict between the
republican Machiavelli of the Discourses on Livy and kind of advice to signori
given in The Prince? Are the political views
expressed in two works diametrically opposed, or can they be reconciled as
fundamentally similar?
7. Historians have long debated the
purpose for which Machiavelli wrote Il principe (The Prince), and
the question of to whom it was dedicated. What is the nature of this
debate, and how do the political circumstances of