Once again, moral virtue and political virtue: Machiavellian ruptures

Abstract

We will first begin this paper by recalling some key landmarks of clas­sical antiquity concerning the relation between moral virtue and political virtue, Aristotle and Ciceronian moral stoicism. We will then move forward into the humanistic notion of “civic virtue” and, thenceforth, into Machiavelli's concept of virtù. Our intention, therefore, is to reconsider the contemporary interpretations of Quentin Skinner and James Hankins that have both aimed to maintain the ethical bond of this virtù, considering its attachment to the traditional goals of political virtue, public utility and the common good. Finally, we will show that the major theme in the Florentine's work, that is, the civic division between the ”˜potenti' and the people, which is constitutive of political order, directly affects the concept at stake here, and leads ethics, both public and private, to refine itself in the making of common life among men.