Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Political Science

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

I argue that imagination and effectual truth in Machiavelli's political thought are dependent upon each other rather than opposed. The standard realist reading of The Prince takes Chapter 15, where Machiavelli dismisses imaginary republics in favor of the effectual truth of things, as the foundational moment of modern political realism. This reading is incomplete. The same work that dismisses imaginary republics instructs the prince to imitate a fictional life constructed for pedagogical purposes. The tension is deliberate and resolving it requires attending to the classification of brains in Chapter 22 of The Prince, which is the key to understanding how Machiavelli writes and for whom.

I argue that the imaginative faculty in Machiavelli is not opposed to reliable political knowledge but is what produces it when properly disciplined, through a movement from admiration to imitation to firm science that runs across his full corpus. It further argues that Machiavelli writes at multiple levels simultaneously, encoding instruction for readers of different capacity in the same text, and that his own practice as a writer, in the paradoxes he constructs, the fictional lives he assembles, and the staged failures he engineers, is itself a demonstration of the very faculty he describes. To make this argument, I move through Machiavelli's ancient sources, establishing the tradition he inherited and overturned, before turning to The Prince, the Discourses on Livy, the Art of War, and various literary works. The conclusion applies this dissertation's framework to the problem of conspiracy and engages the broader question of Machiavelli's relationship to modern political thought.

Date

7-6-2026

Committee Chair

Stoner, James R.

LSU Acknowledgement

1

LSU Accessibility Acknowledgment

1

Download

Available for download on Monday, July 04, 2033

Share

COinS