(Page 1 of 38) - Machiavelli's optical arts: political theory, action, democracy and deception authored by Janara, Laura.

Laura JANARA Draft: please do not cite without permission
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Machiavelli’s optical arts:

political theory, action, democracy, deception

The fact that humans typically “judge more by sight” and yet are “short-sighted” is a central

feature of the human condition with which Niccolò Machiavelli grapples. Among his troop of actors, his

founder and Fortuna alone escape the optical limitations of grounded human experience. Back on earth,

what mere humans need for political success, Machiavelli says, are the many eyes of the Greek

mythological figure Argus Panoptes; such manifold optical capacity would enable people to see many

dimensions of the political field at once and thus be both prepared and capable of positive political

innovation. Regrettably limited to two coordinated eyeballs that face one direction, human political

virtuosos are those who have trained themselves in enhanced (though never reliably complete) vision. As

artists they also, in the name of valued political goods, simulate and dissimulate reality by painting

portraits found compelling by short-sighted people.

My aim is to illuminate the meaning in Machiavelli’s work of the recurring metaphor of sight and

seeing as an expression of modes of experiencing, knowing and thinking.

Unpacking his use of the

Citations of Machiavelli’s work use the following abbreviations: P: The Prince (1995 or 1998

editions); D: Discourses on Livy (1997); HF: History of Florence and the Affairs of I taly from the

Earliest Times to the Death of Lorenzo the Magnificent (1974); AW: Art of War (2003); GA: “Golden

Ass” in The Chief Works and Others (1965, 3 Vol.); CW: The Chief Works and Others (1965, 3 Vol.);

O: Opere (1997, 3 Vol.).

A few examples of Machiavelli’s sight metaphor not discussed in this paper include a passage in a post-

Medici coup letter to Piero Soderini --“I see, not with your mirror, where nothing is seen but prudence,

but with that of the many, which is obliged in political affairs to judge the result when they are finished”;

“men in the first place are shortsighted” – (Machiavelli, 1965, v2, 895); “men in general live as much by

appearances as by realities,” (D, 1997, I:25, 79); the chapter title, “Fortune Blinds Men’s Minds When

She Does Not Wish Them to Oppose Her Plans” (D, 1997, II: 29, 234) [“La Fortuna Acceca Gli Animi

Degli Uomini, quando La Non Vuole Che Quegli Si Opponghino a’ Disegni Suoi” (O, 1997, v1, 404);