ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the methodology that underpins Machiavelli’s political theory and, specifically, questions a long-standing tendency to characterize the author of The Prince as an early adopter of the modern scientific method, an issue that was recently raised again by Megan Dyer and Cary J. Nederman in an essay published in the History of European Ideas. It is examined here through a re-consideration of the structure of Machiavelli’s works. The common consensus is that these works have no clear structure, an issue that particularly concerns The Prince, which displays a singular shape compared with the usual “mirrors of princes” literature. This alleged lack of a system is subject to different, sometimes contradictory explanations. This chapter illuminates the question from a new perspective by re-examining Machiavelli’s motivation for writing The Prince and, in so doing, clarifies the guiding principle that lay behind the construction of his argument. The chapter also discusses how authors of political literature during the Italian Renaissance understood the problem of method more generally, and argues that it may be dangerous and misleading to apply our contemporary notions of the role and importance of method to an earlier period.
