Machiavelli and Epicureanism: An Investigation into the Origins of Early Modern Political Thought

“Machiavelli imparted new meanings to the moral vocabulary of the ancients. Virtù, for example, means nearly the opposite when used by Machiavelli (acquisitive success) as when used by Aristotle (self-restraint). Roecklein does a service by tracing this vocabulary to Epicurean philosophy, of which Machiavelli is said to be a proponent. Thus words like accidente, materia, and corpo carry substantive significance and must be retained in translations, Roecklein argues. Before turning to Machiavelli, Roecklein devotes three chapters to explicating Machiavelli’s supposed sources: Parmenides, Epicurus, and Lucretius. The book is actually more about them than about Machiavelli. But the parts on Machiavelli are quite bold and cutting, as Roecklein attacks head on the republican interpretations of Quentin Skinner and J. G. A. Pocock. Machiavelli is anti-democratic because he commandeers language and discountenances the perceptual world of ordinary people. His political science is anti-deliberative, since choice causes corruption and decline. His new modes and orders are an assault on human dignity and claims to justice for the sake of order, and so on. A valuable addition to Machiavelli scholarship. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections.” —Choice Reviews

“Roecklein’s arguments for the influence of Lucretius on Machiavelli are compelling. . . . The greater contribution of the volume will be to the study of Epicurean-Lucretian atomism and its legacies, rather than assessment of Machiavelli’s political philosophy.” —Polis

“For anyone interested in studying the atomistic and epicurean matrix of Machiavelli’s political thought, and hence of a part of modernity, this book is important because it shows how it is the principal reference which guides Machiavelli in the construction of his philosophical categories and in the polemic against other philosophical traditions.” —Storia del Pensiero Politico

“Robert Roecklein has given us a superb study of Machiavelli’s political theory and its relation to classical philosophy. By connecting Machiavelli to Epicurean thought, he shows a new layer of his political theory and argues that his relation to both modernity and antiquity need to be rethought. Rocklein’s book is important in showing us that we can take much more from Machiavelli’s thought than contemporary scholarship has allowed. In so doing, he provides us with a revealing interpretation of Machiavelli, a thinker who has been as misunderstood as much as he has been demonized.” –Michael J. Thompson, Associate Professor of Political Science, William Paterson University