ABSTRACT
Machiavelli (1469-1527) is the man of ‘politics first of all’. But he did not seek to elucidate or found this primary object upon philosophical arguments. He did not bother with the reflections of Aristotle on the relationship between the good life and the political life. He no more saw in the city the only framework within which human activity can find its complete blossoming than he anticipated the developments of Hobbes, who sees in the State the only insurance against the risk of dog eating dog universally. Nowhere does he evoke the war of all against all, to which men would be condemned if they were not protected against their murderous impulses by the effective arbitration of political authorities. He is as indifferent to the views of Aristotle as he is to those of Hobbes.
