Definition, Division, and Difference in Machiavelli's Political Philosophy

This article aims to illuminate one of the most striking characteristics of Machiavelli's intellectual style-deployed repeatedly in his political theory and usually termed his "dilemmatic" approach-by demonstrating that it is a technique derived from classical Roman rhetoric which forms part of a wider theory of definition. Part I of the article extracts and outlines that theory, showing how it advocates a way of dividing and differentiating items in order to define them. Part II illustrates Machiavelli's deep dependency on this theoretical apparatus throughout his political thought, perhaps most conspicuously of all in Il Principe. © by Journal of the History of Ideas.