Vol. 36 No. 1 (2016)
Articles

L' esecutore privilegiato di Dio: The figure of Moses in the work of Niccolò Machiavelli

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  • Eugenia Mattei
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36446/af.2016.34

Published 2016-05-01

Keywords

  • Moses,
  • Leadership,
  • People,
  • Machiavelli
  • Moisés,
  • Liderazgo,
  • Pueblo,
  • Maquiavelo
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Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze the references and uses that Niccolò Machiavelli makes on the figure of Moses in Il principe and in the Discorsi. Machiavelli develops a particular approach, which must be followed closely: based on his analysis, we may find tools to examine how leaderships operate in his work, and how leaders interact with the people through a passionate circle that is generated between them. For these purposes, this article will proceed in the following way: in first place, we will sequentially restore the mentions on Moses in Machiavelli's work. Once this information is provided, we will focus on the treatment of the relevant concepts –the absence of religion in Moses, the cruelty, the tension between virtue and fortune, and the relationship between leader and people– in order to address the theoretical innovation that these examples portray.

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