Teacher of Evil
FRIEDRICH, CARL J .
Teacher of Evil Thoughts on Machiavelli. By Leo Strauss. Free Press. 348 pp. $6.00. Reviewed by Carl J. Friedrich Professor of Government, Harvard University "WE SHALL NOT shock anyone, we...
...This opening sentence of a remarkable book states with laudable succinctness the basic theme of the author...
...The splendid line of reasoning which Strauss develops is at times weakened by his penchant for over-fine points, and a species of learned gobbledegook which reminds one of the cabala, such as speculations based on the numbers of chapters or their titles and the like...
...Leo Strauss is a scholar who, first in German and since the mid-'30s in English, has produced a shelf of learned and stimulating reappraisals of such men as Spinoza...
...It is an issue which I have recently examined as that of "the Constitutional reason of state...
...I found little trace of the remarkable work of von Albertini, Gilbert, Butterfield or Chabod...
...What about propaganda, for example, or subversive activities...
...At the end, Strauss raises the question as to why such an enterprise as Machiavelli initiated and many modern writers continued should have seemed reasonable: "What essential defect of classical political philosophy could possibly have given rise to the modern venture as an enterprise that was meant to be reasonable...
...In arguing about Machiavelli's intentions, he often goes beyond the reasonable in drawing inferences from apparent contradictions, i.e., the difference between the titles and content of chapters...
...But is this merely a question of weapons...
...Leo Strauss demolishes both of these arguments with remarkable skill...
...Another serious flaw, in my opinion, is the almost complete neglect of the impressive literature on Machiavelli...
...to mention only the most important recent contributions...
...Furthermore, there have been recurring attempts to whitewash, or at least "soft-peddle," Machiavelli's evil counsels, by making him out to be a "scientist" or at least an over-ardent "patriot...
...Actually, Strauss himself not only recognizes, but pointedly develops, the difficult problem of the relation of the two works, but he rightly insists at the same time that from a moral standpoint, they rest upon the same foundation, and that as a matter of fact some of the worst counsels are given in The Discourses...
...Although there are recurrent broad and inclusive references to "writers" on the subject, there is no specific indication of particular writers, nor is there evidence that certain among them have really been adequately considered...
...Such cavalier treatment of the community of scholars smacks of a kind of intellectual conceit which Strauss does not need to buttress his position...
...He argues persuasively and with much subtle learning that Machiavelli is the evil genius of modern society and politics, a man determined to subvert the values and beliefs grounded in Biblical faith, an atheist and a cynic who thought of himself as "the discoverer of a hitherto unexpected moral continent, as a man who has found new modes and orders...
...These are often placed in juxtaposition by men who would read The Discourses as the work of a convinced republican or even democrat, and The Prince as a livre de circonstance written to secure the favor of Lorenzo de Medici...
...It is important to have this viewpoint restated with the resources of our best learning, because, as he suggests, many writers on politics and many more politicians are at heart Machiavellians, even if they do not know it themselves...
...Reviewed by Carl J. Friedrich Professor of Government, Harvard University "WE SHALL NOT shock anyone, we shall merely expose ourselves to good-natured or at any rate harmless ridicule, if we profess ourselves inclined to the old-fashioned and simple opinion according to which Machiavelli was a teacher of evil...
...Thus "the notion of the beneficence of nature or of the primacy of the Good must be restored...
...It is a must for all who would be Machiavellians in the name of patriotism, democracy, socialism or any other of the secular nostrums whose relative value ought never to be allowed to corrupt men's souls...
...The structure of his book is deceptively simple...
...Hobbes, Xenophon and now Machiavelli...
...But after all is said and done, Strauss' Machiavelli is in my opinion a very important and timely book...
...I strongly agree with Strauss' basic position—a position which he himself says has been expounded times without number...
...In the two following chapters, Strauss deals successively with the "intention" of Machiavelli in the two works, The concluding chapter deals definitively with Machiavelli's teaching...
...The only answer he can find is that "in an important respect (namely weapons and hence inventions which produce them) the good city has to take its bearings by the practice of bad cities or that the bad impose their law on the good...
...After an introduction, there is a preliminary discussion of the "two-fold character of Machiavelli's teaching," showing the close link between The Prince and The Discourses, Machiavelli's two major political works...
...But from a higher standpoint, Strauss observes that "the natural cataclysms appear as a manifestation of the beneficence of nature...
...It is based upon a most careful and searching study of the text itself, applying to it the scalpel of a very sharp mind, and it succeeds in bringing into clear focus the intrinsic cheapness and shallowness of the celebrated Florentine...
Vol. 42 • October 1959 • No. 37
