Nevertheless

Machiavelli, Pascal

Carlo Ginzburg

• Publisher: Verso
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781839760150
• Topic: Filosofia
• Subtopic: Filosofia politica

Nevertheless comprises essays on Machiavelli and on Pascal. The ambivalent connection between the two parts is embodied by the comma (, ) in the subtitle: Machiavelli, Pascal. Is this comma a conjunction or a disjunction? In fact, both. Ginzburg approaches Machiavelli's work from the perspective of casuistry, or case-based ethical reasoning. For as Machiavelli indicated through his repeated use of the adverb nondimanco ("nevertheless"), there is an exception to every rule. Such a perspective may seem to echo the traditional image of Machiavelli as a cynical, "machiavellian" thinker. But a close analysis of Machiavelli the reader, as well as of the ways in which some of Machiavelli's most perceptive readers read his work, throws a different light on Machiavelli the writer. The same hermeneutic strategy inspires the essays on the Provinciales, Pascal's ferocious attack against Jesuitical casuistry. Casuistry vs anti-casuistry; Machiavelli's secular attitude towards religion vs Pascal's deep religiosity. We are confronted, apparently, with two completely different worlds. But Pascal read Machiavelli, and reflected deeply upon his work. A belated, contemporary echo of this reading can unveil the complex relationship between Machiavelli and Pascal - their divergences as well as their unexpected convergences.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. Machiavelli, the Exception and the Rule
• 2. Becoming Machiavelli: A New Reading of the Ghiribizzi al Soderini
• 3. Pontano, Machiavelli and Prudence
• 4. Intricate Readings: Machiavelli, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas
• 5. Moulding the People: Machiavelli, Michelangelo
• 6. Machiavelli and the Antiquarians
• 7. Machiavelli, Galileo and the Censors
• 8. Virtù, Justice, Force: On Machiavelli and Some of His Readers
• 9. Oblique Words: In the Workshop of the Provincial Letters
• 10. Ironic and Ambiguous Euclid: Two Notes in Connection with Bayle
• Appendix: Reading between the Lines – A Short Note on The Leopard
• Notes
• Name Index