History, science, and politics during the dawn of Modernity: Some thoughts on Machiavelli

Authors

  • Vitor Claret Batalhone Jr Pós-Doutorado pela UFRRJ com bolsa CAPES PNPD. Doutor em História pela UFRGS, CAPES-Fulbright Fellow.

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss particular features of the culture and epistemology of history during the dawn of modern times, specifically studying The Prince and The Discourses by Niccolò Machiavelli. The hypothesis is that since the crisis of some ancient-medieval epistemological and cultural frameworks, possibilities were opened for the rise of a new concept of world and reality, which, progressively rationalized, begun to occupy some of the roles of religion as well as of classic political life, giving origin to the reign of science and also of history understood as a scientific discipline, from the second half of 18th century onwards. Regarding this process, we suggest some ideas on whether and how at the referred period the political thought could be thought of as a special form of technology of human action.

Keywords: Machiavelli, history, science.

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Published

2016-10-28

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 3 (2016): September/December

Section

Articles

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