ABSTRACT
This chapter is a re-examination of Machiavelli’s notorious concept of virtù. I argue that Machiavelli, far from being a conventional Aristotelian republican, advanced an original instrumentalist conception of virtue as that which promotes the security and grandeur of the state – a conception that laid the ground for much early modern thinking on the subject. I conclude by suggesting that a similar instrumentalism infects most contemporary attempts to reintroduce the concepts of virtue and character into public discussion.
