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1 results

  • 4 - Homer and Machiavelli on Education and Human Excellence

  • Peter J. Ahrensdorf, Davidson College, North Carolina
  • Book:
    Homer and the Tradition of Political Philosophy
    Published online:
    18 August 2022
    Print publication:
    25 August 2022, pp 194-246

  • Summary

    Machiavelli criticizes Plato’s explicit celebration of the contemplative philosophic life over the active political life as harmful both to politics and to philosophy, he praises Homer as an effective teacher of political leaders or "princes," and he follows the example of Homer by hiding his own philosophic life under the guise of one who exclusively leads and admires the active political life. Machiavelli, however, responding to the Platonic and also Christian legacy of radically depreciating the political life during his own times, departs from Homer’s portrayal of the political life of virtue as tragic and therefore pointing beyond itself to the contemplative philosophic life, by portraying the political life of virtue, if properly understood, as one that leads to happiness and therefore does not so clearly point beyond itself to the contemplative philosophic life.