Abstract

The three essays that compose this work were to be presented as lectures at Cambridge in 1975. Because of Plamenatz’s death, however, this did not occur and they were only published in 2012. Plamenatz presents Machiavelli as both a moralist and a political realist. His insistence that the term ‘virtu’ carries both moral and nonmoral connotations without implying a negative double standard for politics is compelling, though of course not original. He notes that today we employ both senses when talking about politicians, the latter being equivalent to successful statecraft. The difference between Machiavelli and us, he claims, is less one of substance than style. Plamenatz’s treatment of Hobbes ..