Download or read book Machiavelli Leonardo and the Science of Power written by Roger D. Masters and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2016-10-14 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, Niccolò Machiavelli's works have been viewed primarily with historical interest as analysis of the tactics used by immoral political officials. Roger D. Masters, a leading expert in the relationship between modern natural sciences and politics, argues boldly in this book that Machiavelli should be reconsidered as a major philosopher whose thought makes the wisdom of antiquity accessible to the modern (and post-modern) condition, and whose understanding of human nature is superior to that of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, or Mill. Central to Masters's claim is his discovery, based on previously untranslated documents, that Machiavelli knew and worked with Leonardo da Vinci between 1502-1507. An interdisciplinary tour de force, Machiavelli, Leonardo, and the Science of Power will challenge, perplex, and ultimately delight readers with its evocative story of the relationship between Machiavelli and da Vinci, their crucial roles in the emergence of modernity, and the vast implications this holds for contemporary life and society.
Download or read book Fortune is a River written by Roger D. Masters and published by Plume Books. This book was released on 1999 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Masters provides a concise and insightful description of the partnership of two of history's greatest geniuses--Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli--and their scheme to make Florence a seaport. photo insert.
Download or read book Machiavelli Leonardo and the Science of Power written by Roger D. Masters and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Machiavelli written by Ross King and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestselling author Ross King’s biography Machiavelli is “a convincing portrait of one of the most misunderstood thinkers of all time.”* The author of The Prince—his controversial handbook on power, which is one of the most influential books ever written—Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) was no prince himself. Born to an established middle-class family, Machiavelli worked as a courtier and diplomat for the Republic of Florence and enjoyed some small fame in his time as the author of bawdy plays and poems. In this discerning biography, Ross King rescues Machiavelli’s legacy from caricature, detailing the vibrant political and social context that influenced his thought and underscoring the humanity of one of history’s finest political thinkers. “Provides a strong sense of the history of both the man and his times and a nice introduction to Machiavelli’s writings. Moreover, like one of Machiavelli’s bawdy plays, it is a riveting and exhilarating read, full of salacious details and brisk prose.” —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) “An engaging, revealing biography and a vivid portrait of a city-state in turmoil.” —Financial Times
Download or read book Thoughts on Machiavelli written by Leo Strauss and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2014-07-04 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The esteemed philosopher’s assessment of good, evil, and the value of Machiavelli. Leo Strauss argued that the most visible fact about Machiavelli’s doctrine is also the most useful one: Machiavelli seems to be a teacher of wickedness. Strauss sought to incorporate this idea in his interpretation without permitting it to overwhelm or exhaust his exegesis of The Prince and Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy. “We are in sympathy,” he writes, “with the simple opinion about Machiavelli [namely, the wickedness of his teaching], not only because it is wholesome, but above all because a failure to take that opinion seriously prevents one from doing justice to what is truly admirable in Machiavelli: the intrepidity of his thought, the grandeur of his vision, and the graceful subtlety of his speech.” This critique of the founder of modern political philosophy by this prominent twentieth-century scholar is an essential text for students of both authors.
Download or read book Machiavelli written by Miles Unger and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-06-12 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few philosophers are more often referred to and more often misunderstood than Machiavelli. He was truly a product of the Renaissance, and he was as much a revolutionary in the field of political philosophy as Leonardo or Michelangelo were in painting and sculpture. He watched his native Florence lose its independence to the French, thanks to poor leadership from the Medici successors to the great Lorenzo (Il Magnifico). Machiavelli was a keen observer of people, and he spent years studying events and people before writing his famous books. Descended from minor nobility, Machiavelli grew up in a household that was run by a vacillating and incompetent father. He was well educated and smart, and he entered government service as a clerk. He eventually became an important figure in the Florentine state but was defeated by the deposed Medici and Pope Julius II. He was tortured but eventually freed by the restored Medici. No longer employed, he retired to his home to write the books for which he is remembered. Machiavelli had seen the best and the worst of human nature, and he understood how the world operated. He drew his observations from life, and he was appropriately cynical in his writing, given what he had personally experienced. He was an outstanding writer, and his work remains fascinating nearly 500 years later.
Download or read book Machiavelli Leonardo Science of Power written by Roger D Masters and published by University of Notre Dame Press. This book was released on 1995-07-31 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Power Pleasure and Profit written by David Wootton and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-08 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative history of the changing values that have given rise to our present discontents. We pursue power, pleasure, and profit. We want as much as we can get, and we deploy instrumental reasoning—cost-benefit analysis—to get it. We judge ourselves and others by how well we succeed. It is a way of life and thought that seems natural, inevitable, and inescapable. As David Wootton shows, it is anything but. In Power, Pleasure, and Profit, he traces an intellectual and cultural revolution that replaced the older systems of Aristotelian ethics and Christian morality with the iron cage of instrumental reasoning that now gives shape and purpose to our lives. Wootton guides us through four centuries of Western thought—from Machiavelli to Madison—to show how new ideas about politics, ethics, and economics stepped into a gap opened up by religious conflict and the Scientific Revolution. As ideas about godliness and Aristotelian virtue faded, theories about the rational pursuit of power, pleasure, and profit moved to the fore in the work of writers both obscure and as famous as Hobbes, Locke, and Adam Smith. The new instrumental reasoning cut through old codes of status and rank, enabling the emergence of movements for liberty and equality. But it also helped to create a world in which virtue, honor, shame, and guilt count for almost nothing, and what matters is success. Is our world better for the rise of instrumental reasoning? To answer that question, Wootton writes, we must first recognize that we live in its grip.
Download or read book Watermarks written by Leslie A. Geddes and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An exploration of depictions and use of water within Renaissance Italy, and especially in the work of polymath Leonardo da Vinci. Both a practical necessity and a powerful symbol, water presents one of the most challenging problems in visual art due to its formlessness, clarity, and mutability. In Renaissance Italy, it was a nearly inexhaustible subject of inquiry for artists, engineers, and architects alike: it represented an element to be productively harnessed and a force of untamed nature. Watermarks places the depiction and use of water within an intellectual history of early modern Italy, examining the parallel technological and aesthetic challenges of mastering water and the scientific and artistic practices that emerged in response to them. Focusing primarily on the wide-ranging work of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)-at once an artist, scientist, and inventor-Leslie Geddes shows how the deployment of artistic media, such as ink and watercolor, closely correlated with the engineering challenges of controlling water in the natural world. For da Vinci and his peers, she argues, drawing was an essential form of visual thinking. Geddes analyses a wide range of da Vinci's subject matter, including machine drawings, water management schemes, and depictions of the natural landscape, and demonstrates how drawing-as an intellectual practice, a form of scientific investigation, and a visual representation-constituted a distinct mode of problem solving integral to his understanding of the natural environment. Throughout, Geddes draws important connections between works by da Vinci that have long been overlooked, the artistic and engineering practices of his day, and critical questions about the nature of seeing and depicting the almost unseeable during the early modern period"--
Download or read book Leo Strauss The Straussians and the Study of the American Regime written by Kenneth L. Deutsch and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 1999-09-28 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Responding to volatile criticisms frequently leveled at Leo Strauss and those he influenced, the prominent contributors to this volume demonstrate the profound influence that Strauss and his students have exerted on American liberal democracy and contemporary political thought. By stressing the enduring vitality of classic books and by articulating the theoretical and practical flaws of relativism and historicism, the contributors argue that Strauss and the Straussians have identified fundamental crises of modernity and liberal democracy. This book emphasizes the broad range of Strauss's influence, from literary criticism to constitutional thought, and it denies the existence of a monolithic Straussian political orthodoxy. Both critics and supporters of Strauss' thought are included. All political theorists interested in Strauss's extraordinary impact on political thought will want to read this book.
Download or read book Tyranny written by Waller R. Newell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-05-27 with total page 555 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first comprehensive exploration of ancient and modern tyranny in the history of political thought. Waller R. Newell argues that modern tyranny and statecraft differ fundamentally from the classical understanding. Newell demonstrates a historical shift in emphasis from the classical thinkers' stress on the virtuous character of rulers and the need for civic education to the modern emphasis on impersonal institutions and cold-blooded political method. By diagnosing the varieties of tyranny from erotic voluptuaries like Nero, the steely determination of reforming conquerors like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar and modernizing despots such as Napoleon and Ataturk to the collectivist revolutions of the Jacobins, Bolsheviks, Nazis and Khmer Rouge, Newell shows how tyranny is every bit as dangerous to free democratic societies today as it was in the past.
Download or read book Leonardo s Legacy written by Stefan Klein and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2010-04-27 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revered today as, perhaps, the greatest of Renaissance painters, Leonardo da Vinci was a scientist at heart. The artist who created the Mona Lisa also designed functioning robots and digital computers, constructed flying machines and built the first heart valve. His intuitive and ingenious approach--a new mode of thinking--linked highly diverse areas of inquiry in startling new ways and ushered in a new era. In Leonardo's Legacy, award-winning science journalist Stefan Klein deciphers the forgotten legacy of this universal genius and persuasively demonstrates that today we have much to learn from Leonardo's way of thinking. Klein sheds light on the mystery behind Leonardo's paintings, takes us through the many facets of his fascination with water, and explains the true significance of his dream of flying. It is a unique glimpse into the complex and brilliant mind of this inventor, scientist, and pioneer of a new world view, with profound consequences for our times.
Download or read book Dynamics of International Relations written by Walter C. Clemens and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004 with total page 772 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Student-friendly and professor-endorsed, Dynamics of International Relations is an innovative, introductory level core text. It compares realist and idealist theories and the paradigm of interdependence against case studies of recurrent problems--why wage war, how to make peace, how to transcend conflict, when and where to mediate, how to increase GDP but also quality of life, and how to organize for peace and promote human rights. Against a backdrop of the threat of terrorism, Clemens clearly demonstrates both the danger and opportunities inherent in a growing global interdependence.
Download or read book Ren Girard and the Western Philosophical Tradition volume 1 written by Andreas Wilmes and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2024-07-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume situates René Girard in relation to the Western philosophical tradition. Each chapter engages the French anthropologist in dialogue with a key figure from the history of Western philosophy, from Plato to Kierkegaard. The pivotal question of René Girard and the Western Philosophical Tradition revolves around Girard’s assertion, “Since the attempt to understand religion on the basis of philosophy has failed, we ought to try the reverse method and read philosophy in the light of religion.” Major philosophers influenced Girard and contributed valuable insights into questions of desire, religion, violence, and the sacred. At the same time, he felt that Western philosophy often, if not always, neglected the founding violence that lies at the origin of culture. This is the first collective scholarly effort at situating René Girard in relation to the Western philosophical tradition. Volume 1 features chapters on Plato, Augustine of Hippo, Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, Blaise Pascal, Baruch Spinoza, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Alexis de Tocqueville, Søren Kierkegaard, and René Girard.
Download or read book Inspiring the Youth of America by Remington Registry written by J. Alex Ficarra and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2016-08-10 with total page 718 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here at Remington, many people are curious about this powerful book commonly known as “Inspiring the Youth of America.” Well, as you may know, our youth today in America are in dire need of mentorship and guidance. This book is a whole new step forward for all of us as a civilization. For many years, and even today, young Americans wander aimlessly in a pool of confusion. They end up in meaningless careers with no past, no future, and nothing to hope for. Undoubtedly, the end result is misery and despair. The end result is poverty and surely a feeling of emptiness. Well, we at Remington, after interviewing over thirty thousand professionals, were shockingly surprised to find that many successful professionals were disgusted with vanity publications. They were disappointed with the meaningless dribble of a phone book–type registry that possibly required a magnifying glass just to read. But surprisingly enough, these professionals encouraged any use of their biography for humanitarian purposes. Undoubtedly, mentorship for our youth fell into that category. So there it was born. Our proudest moment as publishers was laid out before us. But there was one big problem. All these people needed to be interviewed in depth, and generic biographies certainly would not inspire. So with that, we swallowed hard, and our staff got to work. Yes, it was and still is a grueling, time-consuming mission and undertaking. But in the end, as you may witness as you read this book, the content is quite spectacular and certainly worth the effort. We would also like to mention that the participants in this book also spent much time sending us information and encouraging us to make this book worthy of their efforts. Now it was up to us to uphold the dignity of these professionals and forge forward into a future where a student can explore his or her life with the ability to fulfill their own potentials. With that, this book is presented to you today, and we hope that you share in our dream to build a better America from where it really matters—our youth.
Download or read book The Artist the Philosopher and the Warrior written by Paul Strathern and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2009-09-29 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leonardo da Vinci, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Cesare Borgia—three iconic figures whose intersecting lives provide the basis for this astonishing work of narrative history. They could not have been more different, and they would meet only for a short time in 1502, but the events that transpired when they did would significantly alter each man’s perceptions—and the course of Western history. In 1502, Italy was riven by conflict, with the city of Florence as the ultimate prize. Machiavelli, the consummate political manipulator, attempted to placate the savage Borgia by volunteering Leonardo to be Borgia’s chief military engineer. That autumn, the three men embarked together on a brief, perilous, and fateful journey through the mountains, remote villages, and hill towns of the Italian Romagna—the details of which were revealed in Machiavelli’s frequent dispatches and Leonardo’s meticulous notebooks. Superbly written and thoroughly researched, The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior is a work of narrative genius—whose subject is the nature of genius itself.
Download or read book Discourses on Livy written by Niccolo Machiavelli and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2003-03-13 with total page 1092 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discourses on Livy (1531) is as essential to an understanding of Machiavelli as his famous treatise, The Prince. Equally controversial, it reveals his fundamental preference for a republican state. Comparing the practice of the ancient Romans with that of his contemporaries provided Machiavelli with a consistent point of view in all his works. Machiavelli's close analysis of Livy's history of Rome led him to advance his most original and outspoken view of politics - the belief that a healthy body politic was characterized by social friction and conflict rather than by rigid stability. His discussion of conspiracies in Discourses on Livy is one of the most sophisticated treatments of archetypal political upheaval every written. In an age of increasing political absolutism, Machiavelli's theories became a dangerous ideology. This new translation is richly annotated, providing the contemporary reader with sufficient historical, linguistic, and political information to understand and interpret the revolutionary affirmations Machiavelli made, based on the historical evidence he found in Livy. The complete Livy in English, available in five volumes from Oxford World's Classics. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
