Laura JANARA Draft: please do not cite without permission
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metaphor as it relates to the visual arts of painting and map-drawing and Machiavelli’s linguistic
approximation of these arts, I elucidate what sort of perspectivism informs Machiavelli’s thought While
countless scholars have insisted that Machiavelli’s theoretical study of politics itself is an art not science,
and/or that he shows political action to be an art rather than science, these claims beg the question of what
form(s) of art he in fact incites, as different artistic conventions are grounded in different types of
perspectivism. To answer this question, I show that three distinct optical modalities operate variously in
Machiavelli’s work, typically described as Renaissance. More specifically, however, the analysis
elucidates how his own theorizing and account of virtuoso political action both hinge on a multiplicitous
perspectivism that is notably distinct from the linear perspectivism associated with Renaissance visual art.
This study, which ties Machiavelli not only to the ancients but also to medieval epistemic orientations,
helps complicate descriptions of Machiavelli as a harbinger of modernity. Further, in explicating the
centrality of a multiplicitous optics to Machiavelli’s thought, the paper clarifies i) his contribution to the
activity of theorizing itself, etymologically rooted in the Greek theoria, a manner of looking at and
contemplating the world; and ii) the epistemic form that this Machiavellian theorizing shares with
virtuoso political action.
I also show how the array of optical modalities that surface in Machiavelli’s
work operate on different epistemic registers: on the levels of techne
, inductively-derived universal law,
rationalism, and on the level of interpretative understanding that feeds critical practical judgment -- an
insight that illuminates Machiavelli’s understanding of how science relates to action and practical reason.
I subsequently argue that the multiplicitous perspectivism that orients Machiavellian theory and virtuoso
action, including by his prince, invites democratic thinking. As such, I consider how citizenship in a
formal democracy should and could generate such a virtuoso way of seeing and knowing at the same time
that politics remains a permanently dangerous enterprise. Finally, I briefly but pointedly link this study of
Nicia is duped by masks (Mandragola in CW, 1965, v2, Act 4).
3
Theoros means spectator or envoy sent on behalf of the state to observe public spectacles; the base is
theasthai, meaning to look on, contemplate.
4
Techne, the Greek root of the English word technology, refers to the artful science of making, a
productive craft-making.
2
Convention